MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The House of Representatives approved a bill Tuesday afternoon to create new financial incentives for small entertainment production companies to do business in Alabama.
House Bill 379, sponsored by Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, amends the Entertainment Industry Incentive Act of 2009, a bill establishing tax breaks for television, movie, music video and several other types of entertainment productions.
Collins’ bill sets up dedicated funding for small production companies, which she said will help to build Alabama’s base of qualified production crew workers.
Productions with expenditures between $100,000 and $499,999 would qualify for a 45% rebate for all production payroll paid to residents of Alabama under the bill. It caps these rebates for small productions at $2 million.
Production companies are already eligible for a 25% rebate on all production expenditures – including 35% of payroll paid to Alabama residents – with an annual spending cap of $22 million under the existing act. Production costs must also reach at least $500,000 to be eligible for the current rebates.
The act was amended last session to include music albums as qualified productions.
Collins said she introduced the bill at the request of the Alabama Entertainment Office, which manages the program. She also sponsored a bill in 2012 that increased the funding for the act.
“We’ve been trying to build the movie industry,” Collins said. “(We’re) not trying to be Georgia. Ours has a lot of limitations, which I think are good. Like adding the music, we’re adding to our strengths.”
Georgia passed significant tax incentives for the entertainment industry in 2008, which has made the state a national hub for the entertainment industry. The Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts estimated that the program had an economic impact of $4.5 billion in 2022.
The bill also extends the deadline for a report about the program to the Legislature by one year, which Collins said was to allow time to see how the music production amendment and the proposed changes affect the program.
The bill passed by a vote of 99-1. A companion bill sponsored by Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham, passed the Senate unanimously in early February.