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Texas lawmakers approved a record $200 million in funding for the state’s film incentive program in 2023. Now, ahead of legislators’ return to Austin Jan. 14, several North Texas leaders, TV and film executives have the same question: How much funding will be allocated for the next budget cycle?
The answer will sway how many major movies and TV shows decide to film in the state, Taylor Sheridan, writer, director and Fort Worth ISD alum, told members of the Texas Senate Committee on Finance in October.
“The budget on ‘1883’ was $169 million, ‘1923’ was over $250 million. ‘Landman’ was $150-something-million, and I think on ‘Lioness’ it was almost $170 million,” Sheridan said, referring to several of his shows that were filmed in Texas. “Someone asked which of those would still have filmed here had there not been an incentive? And the answer is none — not one of them.”
Even “Hell or High Water,” a $12 million film which Sheridan described as a “love poem” to Texas, was filmed in New Mexico because the state offered a 30% rebate, he added.
The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, referred to as TMIIIP, was created to boost the state’s economy by supporting the production of major movies and independent films as well as TV series, commercials, video games, animation, visual effects and more.
The amount a project is eligible to receive depends on a variety of factors including the production’s total budget, the amount of money spent within the state and percentage of local hires. Additional incentives are available for productions that hire veterans, spend money in-state during the post-production process or film in areas classified as either underutilized or economically distressed.
The grant program was created in 2007 and first funded in 2009. Since then the allocation has swung between a low of $32 million and a high of $95 million, prior to the most recent legislative session in 2023.
Adriana Cruz, the executive director of the Texas Economic Development and Tourism division of Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, told members of the Senate finance committee that the economic impact of TMIIIP has been “significant.”
“Projects have generated $2.52 billion of in-state spending since the start of the program, created more than 189,000 direct Texas jobs and had a return on investment of 469%,” she said. “Otherwise, for every dollar of grant spent, (another) $4.69 has been spent in Texas.”
However, the uncertain flow of funding makes it hard for studio and network executives to make long-term production plans in the state, Sheridan said.
“With an investment as big as we’ve made on ‘Landman,’ for the show to not go three or four years makes no sense from an investment standpoint for the network. … They have to bet on this and they have to bet big,” Sheridan said. “What becomes a real challenge … for the network, from an accounting standpoint, is not knowing how much, if any, incentive is going to exist for that year.”
The program has drawn mixed opinions from within the Republican Party, which has controlled the governor’s office, state House and Senate throughout the program’s history.
There was an attempt to abolish the program in 2015 and again in 2017, with some lawmakers criticizing the use of public funding to support the film industry and others citing issues with the type of content that is created.
The recent boost in funding might suggest that those fears have been allayed, but similar sentiments resurfaced in the October finance committee meeting.
Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Austin, celebrated TBN, a Christian TV network, and Dr. Phil’s Merit Street Media’s recent moves to Texas. Both companies are now based out of the Alliance development in north Fort Worth. She echoed concerns about incentives bringing “Hollywood” to the state and said its golden age is gone.
“There are a lot of high-profile cases right now with the culture that we see in Hollywood,” Kolkhorst said. “Some have been arrested recently. It’s not a pretty scene, maybe in the world of what we call Hollywood or the entertainment industry. So the concern would be, how do we put up a gate and say, OK, we’re letting you in? Oh, we’re not letting you in.”
At the same meeting, several senators also asked how to make the program more effective and thanked Sheridan, actor Dennis Quaid, Alliance developer Ross Perot Jr. and others for sharing their support of the incentives.
In advance of the state’s 89th legislative session, Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, introduced a bill that would create a film event and production tax rebate trust funds. His proposal also includes support for virtual film production institutions, like the one currently being operated by Texas A&M, and designation of new media production development zones. The city of Fort Worth recently moved toward establishing its second such zone in Alliance.
Capriglione was unable to be reached prior to publication, but his colleague, Representative-elect John McQueeney, R-Fort Worth, indicated his support for the film incentive program.
McQueeney won the seat vacated by Congressman-elect Craig Goldman, who previously championed film incentives in the Legislature. The freshman legislator said he has seen firsthand how productions, and the tourism that comes with it, can boost the local economy.
“I think that we are at the beginning of what can be a significant growth of making Fort Worth a hub for that industry where there’s studios, all the behind-the-scenes work,” McQueeney said in a December interview with the Report.
It’s fun to see celebrities in town, McQueeney said, but that’s not where the rubber meets the road.
“The rubber meets the road with permanent, good, long-term jobs,” he said. “And I think that the stuff that they’re working on at the local universities, I think will foster that.”
The Fort Worth Report’s Texas legislative coverage is supported by Kelly Hart. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
Marcheta Fornoff covers the arts for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marcheta.fornoff@fortworthreport.org.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.