Wisconsin is one step closer to passing legislation with the potential to lure the lucrative film-production industry into the state following the bill's approval in the Joint Committee on Finance Thursday.
Senate Bill 563 would create film-production incentives in the form of tax credits—something enticing for production companies looking to cut costs, and advantageous to the host state's economy.
When a company does business … they would get a 25-percent tax credit on all of the equipment they use, anything purchased in Wisconsin and Wisconsin employees that they're using in any stage of the film production,\ said Shawn Lundie, spokesperson for the bill's author, state Sen. Ted Kanavas, R-Brookfield.
UW-Madison communication arts professor Agatino Balio said even though on-location shooting has successfully been used in a number of cities throughout the country, there is an element of risk involved.
""Television and film production is extremely profitable but also very chancy as well—it's hard to make gross generalizations about it because so much depends on the company,"" Balio said.
Lundie said under this legislation, if a film company has a $10 million budget on a movie, half of the earnings stay in the local economy.
""That's a $5 million cash infusion into wherever it's filmed. That's from hotels, catering, transportation, restaurants and everything else that a major production brings to any city,"" Lundie said. ""So it's 5 cents on a dollar, which is a lot of money, and it's all local jobs and local economy.""
Mike Prentiss, spokesperson for state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, the chair of the Joint Finance Committee, said Thursday's hearing on SB 563 was a standard operating procedure.
""It has a state fiscal affect, and every bill that has an affect on the state's treasury has to, by law, go through the Finance Committee because the tax credit that could result down the road is less government money being collected,"" Prentiss said.\
