Written by on Jun 22, 2015. Posted in Incentive News

Louisiana commits to filming incentive cap

Louisiana has for the first time committed to a yearly filming incentive spending cap. The southern state will offer USD 180 million annually, which the production industry has said could impact its appeal to future shoots on the scale of Jurassic World and Terminator Genisys.

Over the past few years Louisiana has become one of the main production hubs in the US, partly because of a generous 30% filming incentive that has until now been uncapped.

Recent productions filmed in Louisiana have also included true-life dramas Deepwater Horizon and The Free State of Jones (right).

The changes to the filming incentive programme include limiting support to USD 30 million per production, reports NOLA.com.

Lawmakers in Louisiana agreed the USD 180 million cap last week, but the changes needed the Governor’s approval. The Louisiana Film and Entertainment Association lobbied for a veto of the annual cap, but in the end the Governor supported the change.

“This bill would result in great harm to the film industry by applying a cap to credits redeemed by the taxpayer and tens of thousands of jobs are at stake if Governor Jindal doesn’t veto it,” said LFEA president Will French before the Governor approved the change.

Louisiana has issued filming tax credits worth an average of USD 270 million each year since 2011, which suggests the new cap could have quite an impact on the state’s production appeal. The per-production spending cap may in fact be more of an issue, especially for big-budget studio tent pole releases.

Production professionals in Louisiana are concerned the cap will convince more shoots to choose rival states like Georgia, which has no restrictions on its annual film incentive spending.

(Image: STX Entertainment)