Jos' S'nchez Acosta, who heads the film program, told the committee the industry generated over $330 million in production spend during the four-year period and supported roughly 23,000 hotel nights and about 7,800 jobs (many short-term production roles). The program combines (1) tax credits under Law 60 and (2) a $74M ARPA cash-grant allocation (two $37M tranches).

Current status: S'nchez Acosta said about $68.16M of the ARPA allocation has been obligated and approximately $56.46M has been disbursed to date; roughly $11.7M remains for near-term disbursement. He said ARPA grants were focused heavily on local productions in the latest tranche (27 local projects and one nonlocal in that ARPA allocation) and that project disbursements are phased (development/preproduction/production/postproduction) to control milestones and evidence of expenditure.

Tax-credit debate: A law (House-enacted measure referenced as Law 5, 2023) that would increase the annual cap for film tax credits from $38M to $100M has passed the legislature and been signed by the governor but remains pending validation by the Fiscal Oversight Board; the board has not yet approved implementation. Committee members asked whether the program has selection criteria that prioritize durable local capacity (postproduction, studios, script development) and whether ROI metrics support a larger cap. Officials said a case can be made for targeted investments that build sustainable local capacity (studios, postproduction, script development) and proposed refining selection criteria to weight these activities more heavily.

Pipeline and availability: The office said that roughly 31 projects already have decrees and that additional projects in the pipeline would exhaust the current credit availability; staff warned that if the pipeline were approved immediately, only a small residual amount of credits would remain for new projects until the next fiscal cycle. The agency committed to provide the committee a detailed breakdown of decrees, pipeline items and the exact amounts committed and available.

Quotes: "in these four years the total of investment ... in producing films in Puerto Rico surpasses the three hundred thirty million," Jos' S'nchez Acosta; "we have obligated sixty-eight million and disbursed fifty-six million," he added about ARPA grants.

Ending: The committee requested a precise list of awarded projects, items in the pipeline, and the credits already decreed so the incoming administration can set policy choices (selectivity criteria, prioritization of capacity-building spending, and whether to press the Fiscal Oversight Board to validate the higher credit cap).

Note on attribution: All numbers and policy references are drawn from the program's testimony and the transition presentation.