Film industry seeks preservation of tax credit

Citing billions of dollars in economic impact, representatives from Georgia’s growing film industry urged lawmakers this past week to continue funding what is thought to be the most lucrative tax credit for movie and television projects in the country.

The tax credit of about $1 billion a year is working for the film industry, but it’s also producing tens of thousands of jobs in the state, they told members of a state House-Senate study committee.

“The future of this business is in your hands,” said Gray Television CEO Hilton Howell, whose company turned the former General Motors plant in Doraville into Assembly Studios. “Don’t lose what you’ve got. You’re winning.”

The committee is examining the effectiveness of dozens of state tax breaks, trying to determine whether they should be eliminated, reduced or expanded.

The film tax credit draws a lot of attention as one of the state’s largest tax breaks.

Filmmakers said they expect their production facilities to continue to grow, and they came armed with big numbers:

$4.4 billion in direct spending that was tied to movie and television projects in the state, according to a report compiled by the Georgia State University Creative Media Industries Institute.

Nearly 60,000 direct and indirect jobs are linked to film and television productions in Georgia, according to Olsberg SPI, a London-based consulting firm that works with the industry.

That could all go away, though, said Frank Patterson, president of the massive Trilith Studios in Fayette County.

“These dollars would not have been invested without the tax credit,” he said.

Some, however, question whether it’s the best way for the state to spend its money.

Earlier this year, then-state fiscal economist Jeffrey Dorfman told the study committee that continuing huge tax breaks for “mature industries,” such as Georgia’s film industry, makes less sense and that the state “should be looking to shrink or end those credits.”

The film tax credit is popular at the Capitol, though, and leaders aren’t talking about doing away with it. Some, however, would like to contain it.

For instance, Senate Finance Committee Chair Hufstetler — who’s also a co-chair of the study committee — proposed putting a $900 million-a-year cap on the credit. But Senate leaders, under pressure from industry lobbyists, backed away from that proposal after it passed Hufstetler’s committee near the end of the 2022 session.

The state Department of Audits and Accounts plans to put out a new review of the film tax credit program by the end of the year.

COURTESY Representatives of Georgia’s film industry made their case to lawmakers last week to preserve the state’s tax credit for movie and television productions. They said the industry accounted for $4.4 billion in economic impact for the state last year.