Madame Speaker and Members:

I rise with my fellow colleagues: Assemblymembers Krekorian, Portantino, Karnette, and Smythe to present Assembly to Bill 1696.

This legislation creates a financial assistance program, run by the California Film Commission, to keep film production jobs in California. This bill is a work in progress as we explore options available to remedy the problem of what’s called “runaway” film production.

Why is it called “runaway” production? Because filmmakers are literally running away from California. While we have the industry’s most talented workers and a favorable business climate, other states are offering targeted subsidies and incentives to lure our world famous, homegrown film and tv show-making industry away from California.

In fact, while we’ve been debating what we should do to keep these jobs in our state, 7 more states have passed tax incentives that are helping to steal productions – and their trained workers – from California.

We’re not talking about movie stars here. We’re talking about skilled, specialized workers who are being forced to relocate and raise their families elsewhere, simply because other states offer a competitive edge with industry-specific incentives.

For example:

• Feature Films, which employee between 300-1,000 fulltime highly skilled camera grips, carpenters, hair stylists, and painters;
• Movies of the Week (MOW), which employ between 80-150 of these fulltime, skilled workers for approximately 4 weeks.

In addition to jobs films and tv production jobs themselves, California is also losing the local businesses that thrive on the presence of the film and TV industry --  just like we lost businesses that thrived during the presence of the aerospace and auto manufacturing industries that once dominated our industrial sector.

Family-owned hotels, caterers, and rental car services – businesses that keep thousands of middle-income and low-income workers employed --  are being put at risk as production companies take advantage of the benefits other states provide.

The average daily shooting, outside of L.A., will spend at least $50,000 per day in a local community.

That’s big bucks for an area like Kern County, where feature films, such as Iron Man and Oceans 13, helped generate over $12.6 million for the local economy in 2006.

Or Santa Barbara County: Feature films such as Nancy Drew, Blades of Glory, Snakes on a Train, and Pirates of the Caribbean (at the Worlds End) spurred more than $16.7 million in economic development for the local economy in 2006.

Members, we should not allow the entertainment industry to follow the path of other industries -- such as the aerospace industry -- and leave a huge economic hole in those previously mentioned communities and other parts of the state.

This is not just about retaining the industry; this is about retaining the carpenters, camera grips and others (some of which are located in my colleague Mr. Smyth’s district) who are struggling to stay in California and make ends meet.

Moreover, this issue is about the small businesses in your district  which thrive on the presence of film production.

I respectfully ask for your “AYE” vote.