No State Money for Film Makers

Local filmmakers and movie buffs hoped it was just a blooper reel as they watched the popular Motion Picture Competitiveness Program pass in the state Senate last session only to die before reaching a vote in the House during budget wrangling.

The program was established in 2006 to provide funding assistance for the making of films, TV series and commercials in Washington state, allowing contributors to claim a dollar-for-dollar business and occupation (B&O) tax credit. To qualify, productions had to meet a budget threshold: $500,000 for feature films, $300,000 for television projects and $150,000 for commercials. The program returned 30 percent on any dollars spent in Washington. Its demise makes Washington one of only 10 states without a film-incentive program.

In five years, 71 projects benefited from the film incentive: 29 feature films, five movies of the week and 37 commercials. The program gave out $17.9 million in incentive money and film companies spent $69 million in the state. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee recommended that the Legislature renew the program because the multiplier effect on the money invested by the studios was just shy of 2.0, meaning an additional $69 million was spent on hotels, food and other services.

Washington Filmworks, the nonprofit established to administer the program, is lobbying for the programs reinstatement as part of a jobs bill the new Legislature will consider this session. But state Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, D-Seattle, a champion of the program, says, Some legislators, even in my party, are against all tax incentives. They cant see the big picture and the jobs that this incentive creates.

Hollywood producer Jennifer Roth, who lives in Seattle and has brought several big-budget films to the state, says the most obvious impact will be to tourism.

Sleepless in Seattle alone brought in an estimated $100 million to the Puget Sound area, she points out.

Would Roth be able to bring any more big-budget films to Washington without a tax incentive?

I would be laughed at for trying, she says.