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Home > 2005 Legislation
Updated: May 9, 2005 By: Aaron Weiler
March 24th was definitely a red-letter day for the Georgia film, video, music & digital industries. We were within one vote of unanimous support of HB 539 throughout the entire legislative process. Only Georgia State Senator Regina Thomas of Savannah voted against the bill. So, please write your State Senators to thank him or her for their vote, along with Georgia State Senator Mitch
Seabaugh, who performed exceptionally on our behalf.
On May 9th, Governor Perdue
signed the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act (HB 539) in a ceremony held at Turner Studios. According to the Governor and the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD), the new Act is expected to help grow the state's film and video industry and level the playing field with its competitors. "This legislation has the potential to bring many more film projects to Georgia, generating a tremendous amount of economic benefit and providing highly sought-after jobs," said Governor Sonny Perdue.
How To Contact Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue
Click on the following link to contact your Georgia Governor...
http://www.gov.state.ga.us/contact_dom.shtml
How To Find & Contact Your State Representatives and Senators
Click on the following link to find & contact your Georgia legislators...
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/state/main/?state=GA&view=myofficials
and then on GEORGIA LEGISLATIVE ACTION CENTER page,
scroll down to the MY
ELECTED OFFICIALS box and type in your mailing address to access your
local list of legislators. Click on your State Representative's or Senator's link, then call or click on their E-mail address to send a message.
If you are not a GPP Member, but would like to receive general announcements regarding this bill, join our ShootGeorgia Yahoo! Group E-mail list.
Posted: February 17, 2005 By: Vivian Jones & Ric Reitz - GPP Co-Presidents
A big thanks goes to Governor Sonny Perdue and the Georgia Film, Video & Music Advisory Commission! This year we have key support from the Governor and his staff, in particular John Watson and Morgan Cook, Department of Economic Development Commissioner Craig Lesser, Deputy Commissioner Chris Clark, Georgia Department of Revenue Commissioner Bart
Graham, the full advisory commission, including Chairman Ed Spivia, Vice Chairman Shay Griffin, Legislative Bill Chairman Dana
Braun (Savannah), Georgia State Senator Mitch
Seabaugh, Georgia House Representative Butch
Parrish, and, of course, EDGE President Mike Akins and Georgia Film, Video & Music Office Executive Director Greg Torre. We all owe these people a huge debt of gratitude, as they have worked very hard to negotiate and compose the bill, plus meet the pressing deadlines of the 2005 Georgia General Assembly.
The bill was sponsored by GA Rep. Larry O'Neal, with GA Rep. Butch Parrish as the first co-sponsor. It is officially REVENUE NEUTRAL, and that has been confirmed in a fiscal note from the Georgia State University Economics Department. Additional details on the bill itself will be available online via the official
Georgia government Web site at http://www.legis.state.ga.us starting Friday, February 18th.
Highlights Of The Legislation
- HB 539 will award base tax credits of 9% against gross production budgets spent in Georgia. Unlike other states, there is no restriction placed on personnel and services brought into the state for this base credit, but salaries included in the tabulation of tax credits will be limited to $500,000 per individual. This limit does not apply to equipment, studio rental, or any other goods and services used in a qualified production.
- HB 539 will award additional tax credits of 3% for all Georgia residents.
- HB 539 will award additional tax credits of 3% for underdeveloped Tier 1 & 2 Georgia counties.
- HB 539 will award additional tax credits of 2% for single, series, or multiple productions by a single company, whose Georgia gross budgets exceed $20 mil in a calendar year. (Turner Broadcasting can also qualify for this benefit after it exceeds a special income average threshold.) This applies to all entertainment production, with the exception of news, sports and on-air promotions.
- HB 539 will award tax credits to qualifying film, video, music and interactive productions (including commercials) in long or short form that are distributed outside of Georgia, but only if they have budgets in excess of $500,000 in single or aggregate Georgia production in a calendar year.
- HB 539 will allow earned tax credits to be transferred, or sold, once to one or multiple companies who have state tax liabilities.
- HB 539 will set a low-end threshold for tax credit sales at $0.60 on the dollar.
- HB 539 will allow tax credits earned in a single calendar year to be used over a five-year period.
- HB 539 will be retroactive to January 1, 2005.
All this, and producers may still claim the Georgia Sales & Use Tax Credit already on the books in addition to our own GPP special vendor discounts. This is not an either/or proposition, as occurs in some other states.
Obviously, we encourage everyone to read the bill fully, and bring your questions to the next Member Meeting.
Also, we have been asked to keep a lower profile this year and marshall our forces only at critical times as a single unified industry. There are no special interest lobbyists working against one another. So, please stand by. We will keep you informed about the times and targets for E-mail and phone campaigns (including links and addresses to your local elected representatives).
Just so you understand the process in the coming days, this entertainment
industry investment legislation (not just a film bill) is currently in the
Georgia House Ways and Means Committee. It should be there until Tuesday,
February 22nd,
when it will be assigned to a subcommittee. It will be reviewed in the subcommittee,
passed back into House Ways and Means, which will take a vote on the bill.
From there it will go to the House Rules Committee. Once passed from this
committee it would go to the full Georgia House for a vote. When the bill
clears the
House,
it will go through a similar process in the Georgia Senate. Naturally, we'll
keep you posted on its progress.
Thank you all for your patience and persistence. We truly believe it will be paid off this year. In the weeks ahead, please remain upbeat and compliment the Governor and the Advisory Commission for this visionary legislation and their rock-solid commitment to the industry at large. We believe this is the very best legislation that the state can support at this time. It is good for our business, good for Georgia, good for taxpayers, and ought to make us competitive when combined with all our other statewide attributes and infrastructure.
When this legislation is passed and signed into law it will be up to the industry and the Georgia Film, Video & Music Office to make it work. Nothing succeeds like success. And, if we are able to create good results, there is no telling how the bill may be amended and upgraded in the future.
Onward and upward!
Ric Reitz
GPP Co-President
EDGE Secretary/Treasurer
Vivian Jones
GPP Co-President
EDGE Vice President
Mike Akins
EDGE President
Business Manager, IATSE 479
GPP Executive Committee/EDGE Board
Mike
Akins
Ric Reitz
Vivian Jones
Tim McCabe
Sheryl Myers
Melissa Goodman
Shay Bentley-Griffin
Aaron Weiler
Jim Sedlak
Bill VanDerKloot
Craig Miller
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Kathy Hardegree
Tia Powell
Matt Timmons
Barry Stoltze
Deborah Childs
Patrick Millsaps
Ben Adams
Robert Vasquez
Paul Varrieur |
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