Film Unions Back a Federal Tax Credit Aimed at Bringing Production Back to LA
SAG-AFTRA and the Teamsters are pushing Congress for a stackable federal film incentive, arguing it would pull shoots back from Canada, the UK and Australia.
The push for a national film and television tax credit picked up momentum this week, and two of the largest unions in the business have now put their weight behind it. The Beverly Press reported on September 2 that members of California's congressional delegation are pointing to fresh optimism after the White House on Aug. 31 urged lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to move legislation creating the incentive.
For Los Angeles, the stakes are not abstract. The argument being made in Washington is that crews here have spent years watching call sheets relocate to countries with richer incentives, and that a federal credit is the only tool large enough to answer them.
What the Credit Would Actually Do
The proposal on the table is a stackable federal credit. Rather than replacing what individual states already offer, it would sit on top of those programs and effectively double the incentive, giving states a fighting chance against packages offered by other countries. That structure is the whole point: the competition is not Georgia versus California so much as the United States versus everywhere else.
Supporters have spent more than a year building the case in Washington, meeting with congressional colleagues, the Motion Picture Association and labor groups representing film industry workers. In April, one member of the California delegation was lead author of a letter to the Motion Picture Association calling on production companies to keep film and television work in Los Angeles.
Two unions made their positions explicit. SAG-AFTRA said a federal incentive would bring productions and thousands of jobs back to the United States while creating opportunities for the businesses that support the industry, and urged Congress to act swiftly. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents tens of thousands of workers across film and television, said its union is ready to work with any elected official committed to a federal production incentive.
Meanwhile, at Wilshire and Fairfax
While the argument plays out in Washington, the thing being argued over was parked in the Miracle Mile. From Aug. 30 through Sept. 2, film crews staged in the lot next to the former Johnie's Coffee Shop at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, shooting a Sony commercial at the Academy Museum.
That is what the policy is actually about: trucks in a parking lot, a crew call in your neighborhood, and a few hundred people working within driving distance of home. Nothing has been passed yet, and a call for bipartisan legislation is not a bill. But the coalition asking for one is now wider than it has been in years.
If you want to know what is genuinely filming around Los Angeles right now, we track it on our filming page.
“A federal film and television production incentive will help bring more productions and thousands of jobs back to the United States, while creating new opportunities for entertainment professionals and the many businesses that support our industry in communities across the country.”
SAG-AFTRA, IN A JOINT STATEMENT
Read this as a jobs story, not a policy story. The crews staged on Wilshire this week are the same ones who have watched call sheets move to Canada and the U.K. for a decade. The proposal would stack on top of existing state programs rather than replace them. Nothing has passed yet, so watch the committee calendar and not the press releases.