House panel weighs movie tax credits
by Mike Hasten - Shreveport Times (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana's film industry made its pitch to state lawmakers Friday to expand film credits to lure more movies as other states' competition has upped the ante. But industry officials won't know for weeks whether it paid off.

The House Ways and Means Committee considered several bills affecting the movie credits offered by the state but did not vote on any bills. Although legislators and Gov. Bobby Jindal strongly support the credits because of what they bring to the state, with the budget crisis "it's an issue of money" and how much the state can afford to give up in tax credits, said Committee Chairman Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge.

"We're feeling the heat from Michigan and Georgia," said Shreveport producer Lampton Enochs. "Film production is down to almost 20 percent of what it was last year." Enochs and several others in the film industry spoke in support of HB862 by Rep. Rick Gallot, D-Ruston, which would increase the tax credit for filming in Louisiana from 25 percent to 30 percent on an investment of at least $300,000

The current law allowing 25 percent credit is set to expire July 1, 2010, but Gallot's bill would make it permanent at 30 percent. When the original tax credit was approved in 2002, "we really had no idea what impact it would have on the state," Gallot said. But it has "transformed" the northwestern region of the state and brought movie production to every area of the state.

In 2008, Louisiana was third in the number of films, behind only California and New York, but it's dropped drastically this year, Enochs said