Film, historic tax credits draw intense testimony as lawmakers weigh sunsets

Hundreds of industry supporters and local officials filled the committee hearing to press the Senate to preserve or phase carefully the state’s motion picture and historic rehabilitation tax credits. Film‑industry witnesses said the motion picture credit supports roughly 10,000 jobs and about $1 billion in annual economic activity, pointing to audit and economic‑impact studies that they say indicate high return on investment.

Industry leaders stressed predictability: developers and studio operators spoke of multi‑year projects and financing structures that depend on credits being available at closing. Pelican Events owner Dolph Federico told senators that the business made years‑long investments based on the tax credit program and warned that sudden change would imperil jobs and recent private capital deployed in Louisiana.

Conversely, consumer and fiscal advocates warned the committee about regressivity and fiscal tradeoffs. Invest in Louisiana presented analysis suggesting the package reduces revenue available for education and health care and could exacerbate Louisiana’s relatively regressive tax system. Religious and civic groups urged lawmakers to preserve funding for social programs. LED and Revenue officials said they intend to honor applications and contracts submitted before any statutory sunset and that LED will produce a strategic plan to replace broadly applicable credits with project‑based incentives.

The committee deferred formal action across bills to allow negotiations to continue and asked LED to complete and present its strategic plan in the regular session for any replacement incentive architecture.