Overnight Monday, President Trump announced he plans to raise taxes on imports—known as tariffs—for movies made outside the country. He hopes to encourage studios to make movies in the United States. Some in the Texas Legislature want to follow suit and use state government to encourage projects to film in Texas.
The proposal already passed the Texas Senate because it’s a priority of the chamber's presiding officer, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. It faces a tougher road in the Texas House, where some conservatives view the proposal as not a good use of taxpayer dollars.
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WATCH HEREPatrick argues the program will help the Texas economy and also bring Texas stories and values to the world through television and movies. Senate Bill 22 redirects $500 million every two-year budget from state sales taxes to the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund under the Office of the Governor.
He’s received some big-time support.
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SIGN UP "Email your state representative or state senator," said actor Dennis Quaid in an advocacy video for the program.
"And tell them to support funding for Texas film," said actor Woody Harrelson in the same video.
Some celebrities with Texas connections even made their pitch in person to Texas lawmakers. Harrelson and actor Matthew McConaughey spoke in front of the Texas Senate Finance Committee earlier this spring.
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“Texas also has a backdrop of so many different geographies that can be the backdrop of so many different stories, that no other state can even match—and we’re not utilizing it," said McConaughey in the hearing.
Supporters argue that other states have moved the flow of projects and jobs away from Texas with better tax and incentive programs.
"Places like Georgia, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and other places that have robust film incentives. Almost every other movie that you see in the credits at the end, they thank the state of Georgia for having that film incentive program," Scott Braddock, editor of the Capitol newsletter," the Quorum Report, told 온라인카지노사이트 5 on the upcoming debate in the Texas House.
Braddock told 온라인카지노사이트 5 Monday that even a popular program like this may get bogged down in the final weeks of the legislative session. This is the time when lawmakers take bills hostage in exchange for other proposals. The Texas House, he said, may hold up the film program until Patrick’s Senate passes their priority—$8 billion in public school funding. The school funding bill has stalled in the Senate, and the film incentive bill has slowed in the House.
Braddock said the Texas House also may have more conservative skeptics, wondering if this is the proper role of government.
"The vast majority of conservatives don't think that it's the proper role of government for the state to be using tax dollars to try to lure 'Hollywood liberals' to Texas—that's the way they would put it," said Braddock.
But he expects Patrick to fight hard for a project he may see as a legacy project.
"I can tell you the lieutenant governor is going to play hardball on this," said Braddock.
Lawmakers leave Austin to end their session in less than a month, and unless they come to an agreement, the Texas movie industry may be dealt a blow.
