Written by on Feb 20, 2013. Posted in Incentive News

Senator calls for location filming tax credit increase for upstate New York

New York State Senator Patrick Gallivan has called for location filming tax credits to be increased for western parts of the state. Filming costs climb as productions travel further from New York City and Senator Gallivan wants to tackle this for western cities like Buffalo.

“We have a very good number of small-budget films being made in and around this area, but we’re relegated to the non-union, smaller-budget movies,” Buffalo Niagara Film Commission head Tim Clark told Buffalo News: “They are good, bread-and-butter kinds of projects for us, but we’re likely not to see the bigger stuff until we get some sort of relief in the tax credits here.”

Gallivan is advocating a four-tiered filming incentive system. This would comprise a scaled tax credit figure from New York’s base rate of 30% all the way up to 45%, helping larger productions offset the cost of leaving the state’s production hub.

We’re likely not to see the bigger stuff until we get some sort of relief in the tax credits here.

Tim Clark, Buffalo Niagara Film Commission

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo boosted the state’s post-production incentive in summer 2012 and the change also rewards projects taking their work outside New York City. The state is one of the top production hubs in the US, alongside California and Louisiana.