AB 1696 passed the Assembly with broad bipartisan support, and it is now pending in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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Dear Select a Senator Senate President Don Perata Senator Tom Torlakson (Chair) Senator Dave Cox (Vice Chair) Senator Samuel Aanestad Senator Roy Ashburn Senator Jim Battin Senator Gilbert Cedillo Senator Ellen Corbett Senator Robert Dutton Senator Dean Florez Senator Sheila Kuehl Senator Jenny Oropeza Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas Senator George Runner Senator Joe Simitian Senator Darrell Steinberg Senator Mark Wyland Senator Leland Yee

I urge you to support AB 1696, which will create a grant program to encourage job-creating motion picture and television production to remain here in California.

Film production in California produces good middle class jobs, it has a tremendous multiplier effect in stimulating the broader economy, and it is an industry that is largely friendly to the environment. Over a quarter million Californians are employed in motion picture production alone, and many more than that are dependent on the economic vitality that it generates for their livelihood. Over half of the states of our nation, as well as many other countries, however, are working overtime to lure these good jobs away from California.

If we do not compete more aggressively to keep these jobs here right now, we will very soon pass the tipping point and will lose this industry forever. AB 1696 is a vitally important step in making California more competitive, and it will certainly generate revenues for the state far in excess of its cost.

I strongly urge you to support AB 1696.

Sincerely,