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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Hollywood Incentives Bill Passes the CA State Assembly Without $750 Million Specified, For Now
A bill set to dramatically expand California's incentives for film and television production companies to shoot in-state has passed the California State Assembly, albeit without a mention of the $750 million program cap promised by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Legislators voted 73 to one on Tuesday to pass AB 1138 and send it to the Senate, with Assemblymember Carl DeMaio of San Diego representing the sole 'no' vote. The vote comes after the state Senate passed a similar bill focused on the state's entertainment tax credit program earlier in the day, with the governor's promised cash infusion absent from the amended legislation. More from The Hollywood Reporter Where Did the $750 Million Go? Hollywood Incentive Bill Passes CA Senate Without Newsom's Pledge The 13 Commandments of Being a Background Actor After Strike Threat, Video Game Workers and Microsoft-Owned ZeniMax Media Reach Tentative Agreement The move adds momentum to union- and studio-backed attempts to provide a shot in the arm to filming in California even as the state faces significant budget deficit concerns. Newsom has pledged support to one of California's signature industries even while existing or proposed state services are likely to be cut or pulled back as a result of the budget situation. That's necessary, argued the bill's advocates on Tuesday. 'California's iconic film and television industry is in crisis,' said bill co-author Assemblymember Rick Zbur, who represents an area in L.A. stretching from Hollywood to Santa Monica, before the vote. 'The hardworking men and women and the small businesses that have built an industry that is intrinsic to California's identity are experiencing depression-level-eras of unemployment and loss of business as our iconic business is being lured away to other states and other countries with better credit programs.' Other champions of the bill, like Assemblymember Tom Lackey, Assemblymember Mike Gibson and Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, emphasized that the proposed legislation was a jobs bill, not a handout to Hollywood. 'What's happened is we got a little arrogant on this film situation and we thought we're all that and a bag of chips, and you know what, the other states decided they would compete with us,' said Lackey, who represents the High Desert. 'And not only that they would compete with us, but they would take this industry.' He said the legislation wouldn't save Hollywood, but it was an important step to make California more competitive with regard to incentives programs in other states and countries. But the bill's one critic in Tuesday's session, DeMaio, disagreed, framing the proposed legislation as an ineffective solution that essentially sought to reward influential political allies in Hollywood. 'We should make California prosperous for all and it's not by giving out the gifts of tax credits to those that have influence, those that might make the best case to the politicians in Sacramento but rather policies that will flatten the cost curve,' he said. DeMaio singled out California's heavily unionized Hollywood workforce and regulations as the reasons why productions fled the state, not the tax credit. 'Nothing in this bill deals with labor costs, nothing deals with the regulatory burden,' he said. DeMaio added that the bill is only attempting to 'soften the blow of some of those bad policies.' The amended bill removes mention of Newsom's pledge to increase the film and television incentives cap from $330 million to $750 million annually, as did its companion bill in the state Senate. Advocates say that figure doesn't need to be in the bills as long as Newsom's budget is passed. The $750 million figure survived in Newsom's revised budget, unveiled in May, even as providing Medi-Cal benefits to undocumented immigrants and Medi-Cal coverage for weight-loss drugs like Ozempic did not. The amended bill also expands the tax credit's program for training workers from historically underrepresented communities to work in the film and television business by opening up the program to additional nonprofits. In a sign that none of this is a done deal and the situation remains fluid, industry unions and the grassroots group Stay in L.A. have encouraged their members to continue writing to and calling their state representatives to support the bills. 'This is one of the many steps we have ahead of us, a coalition of entertainment unions told members after the Assembly and Senate bills passed on Tuesday. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
At 'Stay in L.A.' Rally, Working Hollywood Fights to Improve Incentives for Southern California's Signature Industry
As Hollywood's employment crisis deepens with no relief in sight, more than one thousand rallied on Sunday in support of amplified incentives intended to convince more film and TV productions to stay in Southern California. At the 'Stay in L.A.' event at a studio services complex in Sun Valley, politicians shared stories of constituents in dire circumstances, industry professionals detailed parenting struggles stemming from working in other jurisdictions, and a labor leader described receiving calls every day from desperate union members as production work has dried up in Southern California in the last few years. More from The Hollywood Reporter SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contracts Expiration Date Extended Again With Paramount Deal in the Balance, Teamsters Meet With FCC Chair Over Job Protections Video Game Workers Authorize Strike at Microsoft-Owned ZeniMax Media More than 25 speakers, from policymakers to union officers to workaday performers, painted the picture of an unlevel tax incentives playing field that is jeopardizing the livelihoods of working-class and middle-class creatives and crew members who may not front a film or show but are crucial to their creation. The goal: to emphasize a pressing need for California legislators to greenlight Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget proposal, which would more than double the state's ceiling for its film and television production incentives program, from $330 million to $750 million a year. Also on the table: legislation to increase the film and television credit to 35 percent and expand eligibility to include animation, large-scale competition shows and shorter television series. 'This is Hollywood, California. We have to stay competitive to stay alive, to keep our industry alive, to keep tourism alive, to keep the entire ecosystem alive,' SAG-AFTRA secretary-treasurer Joely Fisher said in an animated speech that echoed through Sir Reel Studios, which hosted the event. 'Make Hollywood Hollywood again!' The Stay in L.A. movement, which rose from the ashes of the Pacific Palisades and Altadena fires in January with the stated purpose of advocating for an influx of film and television work as a means of recovery, helped organize Sunday's event. The movement's leaders have advocated not only for legislation but also for commitments from major studios streamers to keep more of their sets in L.A.; so far, no major company has publicly responded to the call. Speakers emphasized that the entertainment industry isn't just comprised of stars at the top of the call sheet but also grips, costumers and drivers, among other crew workers. 'These are the very people who have built California's reputation as the entertainment capital of the world,' said DeJon Ellis Jr., the business manager for the IATSE Local that bargains on behalf of grips, craft services and warehouse workers. 'The truth is, we are not just creating entertainment, we are creating jobs, we are sustaining families, we are shaping the identity of California itself.' And rally headliners argued that productions sustains many small businesses like History for Hire, a prop house in North Hollywood whose president, Pam Elyea, exhorted attendees to stop by because business wasn't booming: 'We're lonely,' she said. In her speech, Lindsay Dougherty, the leader of the Hollywood Teamsters, compared Hollywood to her hometown of Detroit before the auto manufacturers went into crisis. The display of persistence and, at some points, frustration, all played out in Sun Valley against a backdrop of a post-Peak TV era when studios are cutting costs and Hollywood's output has shrunk. Though many industry workers survived momentary shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic and the duel strikes in 2023, work never roared back. According to the latest report from FilmLA, on-location production in 2024 was the lowest it's ever been recorded by the film office beyond 2020, when projects were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Soundstage occupancy was also down in 2024, to 63 percent, compared with 93.5 percent between 2016 to 2022. The California legislators' proposals may provide some form of remedy. Still, the proposed legislation isn't a done deal. Two speakers at Sunday's event suggested that politicians from Northern California, where the entertainment industry does not have the same presence, may be a holdup. And the Motion Picture Association, the major lobbying group for studios and streamers, and entertainment unions are also still negotiating the specifics of potential legislation. 'I think educating the Northern California electeds is always a hurdle just because they don't see how much this industry impacts the state of California,' Dougherty said in an interview with THR at the event. 'But I think that [with] the two bills, we're going to have overwhelming support from the Assembly as well as the Senate. We've just got to make sure that we're doing our due diligence to fully get the word out.' Policymakers who seemed a little less optimistic about the ultimate fate of the bills and politicians' general awareness of Hollywood's plight called on the audience to inundate their representatives with messages. 'I've got to tell you guys, you've got to do a little more to push people like myself,' Los Angeles City Councilmember Imelda Padilla said, pointing out that only four of L.A.'s 15 councilmembers were present for the event. 'Pick up those phones, get those numbers and call every single councilmember to put this at the top of the list.' Added Jessica Caloza, who co-authored the two tax incentive bills at play, 'What I see in this room is energy that we feel we need to bring to Sacramento.' She added, 'There's a lot of people in this state who do not believe we need the film tax credit. And we need you all to turn out.' The remark came after she led the crowd in a chant familiar to many in the entertainment labor space, where it is a staple of union rallies: 'When we fight / we win.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With Paramount Deal in the Balance, Teamsters Meet With FCC Chair Over Job Protections
Teamsters leaders are leveraging a relationship with the Trump administration to push for worker protections in the Paramount-Skydance merger as the future of one of Hollywood's legacy studios hangs in the balance. The union's general president and head of its entertainment division met with Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr on Monday to raise concerns about the corporate marriage's potential impact on the Hollywood workforce. Sean O'Brien, Lindsay Dougherty and two other union leaders called for Skydance's past 'pro-worker commitments' to be a condition of the merger or for some other kind of worker protection agreement, according to a recent FCC filing. More from The Hollywood Reporter Video Game Workers Authorize Strike at Microsoft-Owned ZeniMax Media SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contracts Expiration Date Extended Carol Lombardini's Pay Rises to $3.7M During Year of Hollywood's Dual Strikes Submitted by an attorney for the Hollywood Teamsters, the filing argues that Skydance has previously described support for workers and unions but 'news accounts of their statements to investors paint a very different picture of likely post-transaction job cuts.' The union met with Skydance executives twice to talk over potential workplace protection measures, including covering all new staffers with a union contract, according to Local 399 counsel David Goodfriend — but it has not received any commitments in return. As a result, the union met with Carr on Monday in apparent hopes that Carr, who has promised tight scrutiny of the merger, uses his muscle to achieve measures that protect workers. The meeting comes as fears about job cuts hover over Paramount's offices in Los Angeles and New York following the deal's closure. In Hollywood, the Teamsters represent thousands of drivers, casting and locations professionals and animal handlers and trainers. Carr called the Teamsters meeting 'productive' in a post on the social media platform X. In its own post the Teamsters said the FCC should 'either should memorialize Skydance's pro-worker commitments as a merger condition or encourage the parties to reach an agreement on how best to protect workers post-transaction.' The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Skydance, the Teamsters and the FCC for comment. Under O'Brien's leadership, the Teamsters union has engaged with the Trump administration even as other major American labor groups have distanced themselves. After meeting with Trump during his candidacy, the union broke with its decades-long streak of supporting Democratic candidates and declined to endorse any presidential nominee in 2024. O'Brien then became the first Teamsters president to speak at a Republican National Convention and his 1.3 million-strong labor group later supported the White House's nominee for U.S. Secretary of Labor, Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who in her first term in Congress was considered fairly labor-friendly. But the union and Trump haven't always seen eye to eye. On March 25 the labor group denounced the administration's nomination of Crystal Carey as the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, with O'Brien calling her a 'bad choice' who wants to 'decimate labor unions and destroy American families.' For his part, Carr has been eager to make the most of the opportunity that Skydance's pending acquisition of Paramount has presented. He has in media appearances suggested the FCC will take 60 Minutes' editing of a Kamala Harris campaign interview into account in its review; that interview is of keen interest to Donald Trump, who has sued CBS over it. In January CBS said it would turn over transcripts and feeds of the interview to the FCC owing to pressure from Carr. Mergers and acquisitions of media companies is an area squarely in the FCC's purview, which cannot be said of Section 230 and more tech-adjacent regulation that have also been Carr hobbyhorses. Though a Georgetown-educated career D.C. insider, Carr has a history of trying to position himself as a friend to blue-collar workers and even one himself. The FCC vet has taken trips up to TV towers in places far from Washington, posing for photo ops and extolling laborers' work. In February he did just that in Alabama, saying afterward 'It is always a fun experience to get up in the air and hang with a tower crew.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
