Lawmakers put spotlight on film/TV incentives in Florida
TALLAHASSEE —
When TV viewers around the country watched Burn Notice, a drama that ended in 2013, they saw the streets and beaches of Miami beckoning.
The show, which filmed in South Florida for seven seasons and hired thousands of people along the way, is a favorite example for lawmakers pushing to continue investing state money in the entertainment industry by giving tax breaks to productions that come here.
“Florida has done a lot in film in the last few years,” said Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, who has pushed for changes to the system for years. “Then, we kind of lost our standing.”
Detert and Rep. Mike Miller, R-Winter Park, say the existing tax credit program is flawed with its “first-come, first served” process of allocating millions of dollars in state tax breaks to film projects that apply first, whether or not they merit funding.
Instead, Detert and Miller have sponsored bills that seek to speed up the approval process and give the state’s film commissioner leeway to fund proposals that seem likely to have the biggest economic impact. The current version of both bills maintains the current first-come, first-served system, but Detert said that will be replaced with a ranking process, likely in the House.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article14502926.html
