by Dominic Patten
February 12, 2015

Just under 5-months after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a more than tripling of California’s $100 million Film and TV Tax Credit Program, the form the new $330 million incentives will take today moved one vital step closer to being solidified. With the clock running on the first application dates for the first non-lottery decided application period, the board of the California Film Commission unanimously approved emergency draft regulations for the program. As CFC Director Amy Lemish told the board, these new qualified wages and ranking based regulations are meant to get the new program up and running in to be in sync “with the TV calendar, which was the point of the legislation.” Getting rid of the lottery was an 11th hour addition last summer to the incentives expansion legislation designed to stop runaway production and return Hollywood to the home of Hollywood.

Besides the end of the lottery, the big increase for the program overall, a stable 5-year footing and the inclusion of movies with budgets over $75 million for the first time as well as network TV pilots and series, the most noticeably difference for most is the new job creation criteria that fuels the process. More at http://deadline.com/2015/02/california-film-commission-tax-credits-new-regulations-jerry-brown-1201372570/