Senate approves tax-credit bill aimed at attracting Sundance Film Festival to Colorado

DENVER — The Colorado Senate on March 27, 2025, approved House Bill 1005, a measure that creates tax incentives designed to support the film festival industry and to bolster the state's bid to host the Sundance Film Festival.

Senator Janae Michaelson (co-sponsor listing) and Senator Amabile introduced the measure on the floor; Senator Amabile moved the bill for consideration and Senator Bazely spoke at length in support. Senator Bazely said Colorado leadership, including Governor Polis and members of Congress and the state’s congressional delegation, had met with the Sundance board to promote Boulder as a relocation site from Park City, Utah, and argued the incentives would provide a competitive advantage against other finalist cities such as Cincinnati and Salt Lake City.

The bill would make refundable tax credits available to qualifying festival organizers as a mechanism to deliver benefit to a nonprofit festival that does not pay corporate income tax. Senator Amabile described the refundable feature as a way to deliver credits to a nonprofit and said the festival would need to “prove that they qualify” to receive credits. Amabile also told colleagues that, under the bill’s timetable discussed on the floor, the festival would become eligible to qualify for the tax credits beginning in 2028 if it met the statutory conditions.

Supporters framed the proposal as an economic-development tool. Senator Bazely said the statewide economic impact would be “phenomenal,” and cited outreach by state leaders and interest from the Mesa County Economic Development Corporation. He said the initiative was the result of months of work and a competitive bid process.

Opponents and detailed budgetary critiques were not recorded in the transcript. Senator Amabile — noting her service on the budget committee — said she did not want to act recklessly and emphasized that qualifying criteria must be met for the credits to be awarded.

Procedural record: the bill was read by the clerk and taken up on special orders. The committee of the whole reported that House Bill 1005 passed second reading and was ordered revised and placed on the calendar for third reading and final passage. The committee-report adoption was recorded with a roll call of 34 ayes, 0 no, 0 absent and 1 excused. Final third-reading adoption of the bill was announced on the floor; the transcript records the bill as adopted but does not record a roll-call tally for final passage.

House Bill 1005 lists Representatives Duran and Titone and Senators Amabile and Bazely as sponsors on the legislative title read into the record.

The measure’s backers said the credits are intended to be performance-based — organizers must demonstrate eligibility before receiving credits — and that the refundable structure is tied to nonprofit status. The transcript does not include text of the bill’s statute language, precise budget estimates, nor a final roll-call tally for third and final passage.

What happens next: with the Senate’s adoption, the bill was placed for third reading and final passage and recorded as adopted on the floor. Any steps that would depend on outside actors (for example, a decision by the Sundance Festival board to relocate) remain external to the Legislature’s action and were discussed by senators as conditions or motivations for the incentives.