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MAYOR HAHN ANNOUNCES NEW INCENTIVE TO STOP RUNAWAY PRODUCTION

Thursday March 17, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hollywood - Mayor Jim Hahn today announced a new incentive to protect Los Angeles' entertainment industry from being lured away by other cities, states and countries offering strong financial incentives.

"Other cities, other states and other countries are luring our film industry away with powerful financial incentives.  I'm fighting back with incentives of our own to make an offer that will be hard for filmmakers to refuse," Mayor Hahn said. "Protecting our entertainment industry isn't about millionaire producers and movie stars.  It's about the people who hang the lighting, drive the truck and build the sets.  And it's about our economy -- Hollywood generates $30 billion and 200,000 jobs for Los Angeles."

Mayor Hahn's incentive would reimburse productions for 5 percent of below the line costs of up to $12.5 million, for a maximum of $625,000 per production.  The maximum amount the city would pay in the first year of the proposal would be $15 million, $2.5 million more than New York City's film incentive program, which was implemented in January and is credited with attracting at least 5 productions there.

"Los Angeles already has the history, studio infrastructure, talent and sunshine that producers want," Mayor Hahn said.  "Now, this new incentive, combined with the unprecedented entertainment tax reforms I enacted, are making Los Angeles more financially attractive to film production - and that will attract jobs and dollars to our city."

Mayor Hahn has strongly supported state and federal legislation and other efforts to stop runaway production and film and music piracy, and said today he will work with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to develop a state program that would complement and enhance Los Angeles' incentives.

Mayor Hahn recently enacted a series of business tax reforms to
support the entertainment industry, including an exemption on taxes for most independent writers, producers and directors, and a targeted reduction in business taxes for small and medium sized productions, like commercials and independent movies, which are the bread and butter of the film industry.

Mayor Hahn has prioritized combating film piracy, with Los Angeles filing the first cases under California's anti-piracy statute and aggressively arresting and prosecuting people who sell illegal DVD copies and take camcorders into movie theaters.  Camcorder piracy costs the entertainment industry $3 billion a year and accounts for 92 percent of films available for illegal downloading on the Internet.

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