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August 27, 2014      4:14 PM

Texas incentives for filmmakers are defended in House hearing

Texas Enterprise Fund continues to draw fire

A Hollywood executive and others told Texas lawmakers on Wednesday that the state is doing the minimum right now to be competitive in the film industry. Economic incentives for filmmakers who ply their craft here were the focus of hours of testimony Wednesday during a House select committee meeting, the latest in a series of hearings about Gov. Perry’s prized Texas Enterprise Fund and Emerging Technology Fund, as well as other programs designed to lure business.

Heather Page, the Director of the Texas Film Commission, said $128 million has been rebated to companies over the last 7 years through the Moving Image Industry Incentive Program and those companies have injected about $958 million into the state’s economy. It’s also created about 15,000 fulltime jobs in that time, she said. Meantime states like New York, Michigan, and Louisiana have gotten much more aggressive in recent years with their incentive programs for filmmakers, Page said.

As of last fiscal year, the program had a 657 percent rate of return, Page said. "That number is determined by the documentation that we receive from the applicant, how much money they spent, of which we will incentivize a percentage of that," she said and added that unlike the Texas Enterprise Fund – which grants money to companies up front after they’ve agreed to certain terms – the film incentives require private investment first. "They have to spend in the state well before they see a rebate from us," Page said.

The fund has been criticized by some self-identified Tea Party lawmakers and others as unnecessary and “outside the core functions of government.”

By Scott Braddock