An amendment to add $5 million back to the film program was passed in Senate Finance yesterday. It added $5 million (and ONLY $5 million), AND it removed the tier payment system, which we desperately need. We are trying to get that rectified, plus a again asking for a larger float, plus push for a sunset and or a cost of living increase. We are pushing next for the Senate Floor.
We have support here that is keeping this alive. It's literally down to single votes in the Senate. If you're going to make a difference, its today and tomorrow. We need lobbying of all Democratic Senators with the exception of Smith, Jennings, Fischmann, and Papen.
Our message is this: $60 million plus a sunset or a cost of living increase.
Don't limit the amount of revenue the state can generate in one year.
We still need people here in the roundhouse!!! and calling and emailing.
This is it in terms of our working time frame this year.
Please find more updates here:
~Please see link to our TV ad:
-Article from the Journal with a good quote from LANB.
Senate Panel Backs Film-Rebate Compromise
By Dan Boyd Journal Capitol Bureau
SANTA FE - A key Senate budget committee took a stab Monday at finding an elusive compromise on New Mexico's film incentives, raising the proposed limit on how much the state could pay out annually to $50 million.
Meanwhile, film industry executives say the tone of the simmering debate has already exacted a toll.
Steve Perry, the planner of a $20 million planned Santa Fe postproduction film studio, said a local bank decided last week not to follow through on a pledged loan of more than $12 million due to the uncertain future of the film incentive program.
The decision by Los Alamos National Bank, just eight weeks before the scheduled groundbreaking of Masque Entertainment Studios, threw the project into jeopardy, he said.
"It's just a shame to see this piddle away," said Perry, who added that the studio project had already gone through the city review process and was expected to create 750 construction jobs.
Debate over the state's film rebates - which paid out about $65 million last year - has been fierce since Republican Gov. Susana Martinez announced earlier this year that she wanted to see the incentives trimmed.
While lawmakers have balked at the push to lower the rebate amount from its current level of 25 percent, the House approved legislation earlier this month that would have limited outgoing rebate payments to $45 million annually and structured some rebate payments over several years.
After film industry officials blasted that plan, members of the Senate Finance Committee worked behind the scenes to amend the bill, House Bill 607, to find common ground.
The result, unveiled Monday, would slightly increase the annual cap. It would free an estimated $18.5 million in the coming year, according to a Taxation and Revenue Department analysis.
"Five million (dollars) isn't a big number, but it sends a different message," said Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, of the increase in the proposed cap. "I think this message is positive if the governor is willing to sign it."
The amended bill was on its way Monday to the Senate floor, where it could be debated as soon as today.
In addition to changing the cap, the Senate Finance Committee also changed the way the rebates would be paid out by removing the provision that would allow the payments to be spread out over several years.
Bill Enloe, president and CEO of Los Alamos National Bank, declined to comment on Masque's situation Monday. But he did say that cutting New Mexico's film incentive program will have a deleterious effect on future loans the bank makes to film companies.
"We're going to be a lot more cautious and careful in the kind of money we lend to that kind of activity," Enloe said.
New Mexico has a long history of film-related activity, but only during the recent period of "relatively aggressive" incentives has the state really built up infrastructure and become a competitive location, Enloe said. Decreasing incentives will probably result in fewer films coming to New Mexico - and less of a need for that kind of infrastructure.
"Changing that program creates a lot of uncertainty going into the future, and whether our infrastructure is too large to support the films that still choose to come here is a big question," he said. |
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