Probably won’t be that big a deal, but we’ll see.
The Texas House gave final approval to a bill increasing the amount of money the state spends to attract film and television productions.
Senate Bill 22, filed by Houston Republican Sen. Joan Huffman, would allow the comptroller to deposit $500 million into a new Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund every two years until 2035.
Eligible expenses that could be paid for by incentives would include Texas workers’ wages, meals purchased from local restaurants, and airfare on Texas-based airlines.
The actual cost of the bill was still unclear Sunday night, when the House preliminarily approved the bill. Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, who was presenting the bill in the lower chamber, suggested the cost might drop to $300 million based on discussions in committee hearings.
“It could go up to $500 million as they haven’t finalized the budget, but the $300 million is what they’re discussing,” Hunter told lawmakers.
Hunter said SB 22 does not guarantee the film incentive fund to provide $500 million, which acts as a ceiling.
“You already voted for the budget. This money was placed in the budget. That’s not this bill,” Hunter told lawmakers. “This bill provides safeguards on how Texas spends money on film.”
Chase Musslewhite, co-founder of Media for Texas, a non-profit organization dedicated to boosting the state’s film and media industry, said on Tuesday she had heard discussions about decreasing the $500 million amount. Still, as long as the bill provides more than $200 million, she said her organization is content.
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Others have raised concerns about how the governor’s office will determine which productions to fund. The bill gives the governor’s office complete discretion over which projects receive grant funding. However, supporters pointed out that many of these provisions have already been in place, and the bill doesn’t stop films from being made; it just provides extra incentives.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Texas is one of 37 states to offer a film incentive program. However, due to the uncertainty surrounding their incentive program, Texas is far behind states like New York, Georgia, and New Mexico when it comes to Westerns and other film and TV productions.
“There are tons of Texans who live in California and New York, all over the globe, who are pursuing their careers, because those opportunities weren’t here in Texas,” said Grant Wood, co-founder of Media for Texas. “We have essentially been subsidizing the workforce of these other states. It’s all about bringing that workforce home and continuing to create a more robust and diverse economy.”
Since 2007, lawmakers have funded the film incentive program at varying levels, with $50 million during one legislative session followed by $45 million the next. A then-historic $200 million came during the most recent session in 2023.
The program has boosted economic activity in Texas, producing a 469% return on investment, according to the Texas Film Commission, though economists and some House lawmakers have criticized that metric and denounced film incentives as wasteful spending.
See here for some background. You can safely disregard the wild economic activity projection by the Texas Film Commission, which is right up there with projections about how much activity a sporting event will generate. It’ll do something, just not that much. But hey, we had Matthew McConaughey and some other Texas-born stars testify before legislative committees, so as far as that went we got our money’s worth. Lone Star Left and The Barbed Wire have more.
Apparently the TX Lege hasn’t heard about their Federal Fearless Leader’s plan to decrease government spending of taxpayer dollars.
Almost as good as using taxpayer’s money to build sports stadiums or to attract sporting events.
There’s a reason why the Astrodome is sitting derelict…no private party can figure out how to make any money off it.