Sheri Davis of the Inland Empire Film Commission discusses statewide tax incentives at a luncheon she helped put together.
 
The Palm Springs Film Office and Film Alliance meet with hotel managers from the Palm Springs Hilton and Palm Mountain Resort regarding local film incentives.
 
Statewide incentives will help bring more productions into the Coachella Valley.

*NEWS: The State of California has passed a set of tax incentives for filming! Click HERE for more information.* 

The Palm Springs Film Office and the Inland Empire Film Commission (IEFC), along with the support of the Palm Springs Film Alliance, support various incentives to help keep productions in California and in the Coachella Valley.

It is now common knowledge that one of California's major sources of income, the entertainment industry, has been leaving the state in droves for greener pastures, taking with it revenue, taxes, jobs and professionals. Why? Statewide tax incentives, which can save a large production millions of dollars. There are less than ten states with no statewide incentives, and California is one of them.

An example of how this has affected the Coachella Valley...

A few years ago the feature film, "The Kingdom", was slated to be filmed in and around the Palm Springs area. It was a big budget production and would have had a local impact of approximately $80,000,000. Yes, that's 80 MILLION DOLLARS. Sheri Davis and Dan Taylor of the Inland Empire Film Commission had worked long hours setting up their stay, but near the start of the shoot they received a phone call saying that a decision was made for the production to move to Arizona.

You can guess why. Arizona state tax incentives, which saved them millions of dollars. No Palm Springs local incentives could get near that.

So, it is our belief that even though local incentives can be helpful for certain types of productions and are part of an overall set of incentives packages, it is statewide incentives that will have the most impact in keeping production in California, and, as a consequence, the Coachella Valley.

STATEWIDE INCENTIVES

It is imperative for the California Assembly to create tax incentives for film and TV productions in California. Without these we will continue to lose jobs and tax revenue, and the Coachella Valley will suffer.

The Inland Empire Film Commission (IEFC), along with other film commissions in California, have been lobbying Sacramento to pass tax incentive legislation. They have made headway, but are not there yet.

Here are some links for more information and to get your voice heard on this serious issue:

IEFC Seeking Movie Tax Incentives

Governor Seeks Film Tax Credits

California Film Commission Incentives

Governor Seeks Film Tax Breaks

NY Incentives Could Hurt Los Angeles Area

California Film Commission Backs Film Incentives

State Film Incentives (SAG site)

California Seeks To Keep Film Industry

Contact Your State Legislator!

Write A Letter To The Editor! (Desert Sun)

 

    

LOCAL INCENTIVES

Local Incentives can be a great way to let productions know that an area is receptive to their project and are willing to work with them, and to help be competitive with other California locations.  Such things as reduced hotel rates, extra services from vendors and other value-added perks can go a long way in helping a large production feel wanted and a small production stay within budget.

We work to get these incentives created with the understanding that most productions that come to our area do so because it has the look they need, not because of local incentives.

It is also true that productions that use crew from outside of our area take much of the savings that the production received from the local incentives back out of our area, reducing the positive impact the incentives were meant to have on our local economy.

Thus, we work to promote a balance of local incentives... a reasonable amount of retail discounts for all productions plus city tax rebates for locally produced projects that employ a very high percentage of crew from the Coachella Valley.

The Palm Springs Film Office and the Inland Empire Film Commission (IEFC), along with the support of the Palm Springs Film Alliance, have created a series of proposals for local agencies to implement to help local productions, crew and the area economy and are in the process of presenting these to cities in the Valley.

We have also had successful meetings with local vendors requesting them to provide "film friendly" services for productions.