(The Center Square) – The entertainment industry is pushing for more tax credits in Georgia, as industry leaders say other states and cities are pulling the industry away with promises of more money.
On Wednesday, the state’s House Rural Development Council met to hear from a panel on current workforce developments in the state’s film industry.
Matt Campbell, vice president of government relations at B.I.G. Entertainment Network, led the panel.
“B.I.G. stands for based in Georgia,” Campbell said. “It’s about investing in the creative economy.”
Campbell was joined by three industry leaders who are all working to invest and grow the entertainment industry in rural Georgia.
“I’ve already looked at two or three different locations around the state … to open new offices and to actually take the office to the people,” said Jonathan Harb, who recently moved his post-production studio The Whiskeytree Southern Corporation from California to Georgia. “Just look at the potential for rural development in the state. It’s all over.”
To do that effectively though, the panel argued that more tax credits are needed, both in rural Georgia and in the post-production sector of the industry.
“As you go into this session, we’re asking that you consider an uplift of 10% outside the metro Atlanta area in the tax credit,” said Joel Slocumb, who is a film commissioner at the Columbus Film Office.
That increase for rural areas specifically would help cover the increased costs of filming in a rural area, Slocumb said.
Currently, the Georgia Department of Economic Development grants a 20% tax credit, with additional incentives also available.
Rep. Al Williams, D-Midway, expressed skepticism about the ability for the legislature to pass additional tax credits.
“The state already heavily incentivizes,” Williams said. “When you start talking about dollars, you do know the last couple of years, it was quite a fight to hold what we had. To go back and ask for more, you are talking about a fight.”
Campbell said if the state wants to encourage productions and jobs to come to Georgia, then it needs to compete with the financial incentives that other cities and states are providing.
“It has to be cost effective. It has to be where they can compete against other business interests,” he said.
Harb said additional incentives, specifically growing the number of projects that would qualify for incentives, would be especially helpful for the post-production sector of the industry.
“Anytime you have a chance to incentivize production or post production…would make a huge difference,” Harb told the committee. “The fact is, every large, high-profile project that you see…go to the most heavily incentivized areas in the world first.”
