Lawmakers seek more film benefits
Governor’s Office says industry generated record $855 million for New Mexico
Lawmakers on a legislative panel that oversees film incentives want the state to do more to incentivize local productions and filming in rural communities.
Some said it would be great if New Mexico could be branded into productions by setting the show or movie in a real New Mexico town, as the producers of Roswell, New Mexico did (though it was filmed in Santa Fe).
“What should be incentivized is having a New Mexico town as a character in the show,” Rep. Moe Maestas, D-Albuquerque, said during an Economic Development and Policy Committee hearing Thursday afternoon. “Or better yet, to tell a New Mexico story. There should be an incentive related to that, too.”
The Economic Development and Policy Committee hearing, which met in Las Vegas, N.M., came hours after Gov. Michele Lujan Grisham’s office said in a news release the film, television and digital media industry generated a record $855.4 million in direct spending in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended June 30.
That was an increase of 36 percent over fiscal year 2021, according to the release.
New Mexico for years has been a top spot for filmmakers, primarily because of a tax program that allows those production companies to apply for 25 percent rebates on qualified expenses for projects shot in the state.
Television production companies that bring long-term series to the state, such as Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, can receive rebates of 30 percent.
Additional incentives for filming in rural areas can bring the rebate up to 35 percent for some productions, which led to a 60 percent increase in direct spending in some communities — from $6.5 million in fiscal year 2021 to almost $50 million in fiscal year 2022 — the Governor’s Office said.
Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes said the state can do more to expand that rural incentive program, drawing production companies to towns like Socorro and
Wagon Mound that do not often benefit from the industry.
The productions pay off with revenue, but also in job training and employment opportunities in an industry that often does not require a college degree.
“We want to bring money into our economy from outside and employ New Mexicans,” Keyes said of the film incentive program.
According to a presentation Keyes gave to the committee, 55 films and 54 television shows were shot in the state during the past fiscal year.
Lujan Grisham, as well as most governors going back to the mid1990s, has often played up the financial and job creation benefits of filmmaking in New Mexico.
The presentation released Thursday said the median wage for a full-time film crew member working in the state was $29.36 an hour, compared with $18.18 an hour for all other industries, according to the Governor’s Office.
That report presented a breakout of film payouts for the NBC Universal pilot for Briarpatch, shot in Albuquerque over a twoweek period in September 2018.
That breakout said the production company spent $20,000 in lodging, $70,000 in food and $30,000 in fuel. It also spent $120,000 in film equipment rentals.
Efforts to obtain similar details for other productions have failed. Bruce Krasnow, spokesman for the Economic Development Department, wrote in an email Thursday: “The specific spending is proprietary. We do not have that in house.”
He said the producers of that pilot show voluntarily provided data for the report.
Former Gov. Gary Johnson, then a Republican, is credited with signing the first level of film production incentives into place in the 1990s. The incentives have been tweaked and expanded over the years and led both Netflix and NBC Universal to set up anchor production facilities in New Mexico.
Last year Netflix committed to spending $10 billion over the next 10 years. Keyes told lawmakers NBC Universal has committed to spending $500 million in the next 10 years.
Albuquerque and Santa Fe are often cited by MovieMaker magazine as top cities for film professionals to live and work. New Mexico was named a film production “hot spot” by Deadline magazine in 2020.
Still, some lawmakers in both major parties have expressed concerns the investment the state makes in offering those tax rebates may not be worth the direct spending payback.
A 2021 report conducted by the United Kingdom-based consulting group Olsberg SPI and presented to members of the legislative Revenue Stabilization and Tax Revenue Committee last year said the film business generated $854 million in direct spending in fiscal years 2020 and 2021. In return, the state gave out about $160 million in tax credits during that time, according to the report.
Some lawmakers on the committee questioned whether the film business will put pressure on the state to get better incentive deals, and said they wanted to see the incentives prioritize New Mexico filmmaker projects.
That latter point was brought up by Maestas. Perhaps, he said, future incentives could revolve around requirements ensuring a certain amount of New Mexicans get hired on each project.