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Film Industry Lobbies for Incentives  March 26th, 2014 | WMFE, Orlando- Representatives from the film industry are meeting with lawmakers in Tallahassee Wednesday. The 'Rally in Tally- calls for tax incentives to attract more film and television production to Florida. [Florida Film Industry says lack of tax incentives is driving production - like The Glades- out of the state. Image courtesy A&E Television Networks Inc.] About 160 members of the film industry from Miami, Tampa and Orlando traveled to Tallahassee to meet with legislators. Central Florida based Film and TV Casting director Nancy McBride says tax incentives would help bring crew, jobs and revenue back to the state. “We’ve lost a lot of shows," says McBride. "We’ve lost Dexter, we’ve lost Magic City, we’ve lost Glades. Those shows have pulled to go someplace else where the incentives and the packages were better.” McBride says there’s a lot of competition in Florida for the few jobs available. She also circulates a newsletter with job leads to 2,000 people in the industry, but she says there aren’t enough jobs to go around. “It may be like, one week 30 [jobs] for cast and then maybe 15 for crew," says McBride. "If you’ve got 1500 crew, the percentage of you getting a job out of that unless you’re spectacular is next to none, and not all of those jobs are paid.” A House bill would offer $200 million a year in tax incentives, while a Senate bill would offer about $50 million a year. Some watchdog groups have raised questions about how incentives are allocated, however. A recent report from the non- partisan Integrity Florida called for better accountability and transparency in allocating film incentives. |
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