Government Relations Update

March 10, 2008

Film Incentive Bills Receive Joint Hearing

Last week, the House and Senate Commerce committees held a joint hearing on a package of bills designed to bring movie and commercial production to Michigan.

The House bills are HB 5841 – 5856, while the Senate bills are SB 1168-1183. As the bills move forward, they will likely be reassembled into a package of House and Senate bills that would be presented to the Governor. The enactment of this legislation would make Michigan the top state in the country for production incentives.

Highlights of the bill package include tax credits for companies involved in the production of motion pictures, television programs, music videos and similar productions in Michigan. This would apply to production costs and job training, tax credits and deductions for private investment in certain media productions and in media production facilities, and state-financed loans.

Credits could top out at 42 percent of direct production expenditures for a production in a core community and 40 percent of expenditures in the rest of the state. Direct production expenditures refer to development, production or postproduction expenditures.

Committees in both chambers continue to take up the bills in committee this week, with voting likely.

State Budget Process Continues

Hope continues around the Capitol that the majority of the state’s budgeting process will be complete before the end of June this year, unlike recent years. Subcommittees in both the House and Senate are actively meeting, with the first round of subcommittee votes likely happening this month.

The House and Senate Fiscal Agencies (both non-partisan agencies) have a tab on their websites listing all the current appropriations bills and their status. Links to each site are embedded in the following: House Fiscal Agency and Senate Fiscal Agency.