Bill aims to lure Utah’s movie industry back

SALT LAKE CITY – A Senate panel has endorsed an incentive fund that aims to give Utah’s ailing film industry a needed shot in the arm.

But the bill’s sponsor says it’s still up to the Legislature’s Executive Appropriations Committee to decide whether the measure will pass with the current $3 million price tag.

The bill received a nod from the Utah House last week, and on Monday, got a favorable recommendation from the Senate Workforce Services committee.

The legislation – sponsored by Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, and championed by the state’s Motion Picture Task Force – would create an ongoing fund to support in-state productions of television movies and motion pictures.

Two-thirds of the fund would provide incentives for television series and made-for-TV movies filmed in the state, and a third of the money would be apportioned for in-state motion picture productions.

But that’s provided the bill isn’t sidelined by other projects vying for chunks of the state’s budget surplus, Allen said.

“We’ve known all along that this was going to be the hurdle,” she added. “But we need this to keep us in the economic development ballgame.”

The bill is part of a push to restore Utah’s pride of place on the silver screen, said Leigh von der Esch, longtime executive director of the Utah Film Commission, and the recently named deputy director of Gov. Jon Huntsman’s Travel and Tourism office.

Film production in Utah dropped by 60 percent over the past two years, and von der Esch and Allen want to change that. They also want to use Utah’s on-screen charm to lure tourists to the state.

“Some films shot in Utah have been among the highest grossing films in Europe,” von der Esch said. “So wouldn’t it be easy to run a campaign saying, ‘You’ve seen the film, now visit the set?’ “

Lawmakers and industry experts pointed to the meteoric success of the teen-geek tale “Napoleon Dynamite” in attracting attention to the previously obscure town of Preston in southeast Idaho.

“An incentive fund could have helped a project like that,” von der Esch said. “That was very much a phenomenon lawmakers took notice of.”

If approved, the fund would provide a post-performance rebate to filmmakers for expenses incurred during filming in Utah. Authority to determine the structure, amount and nature of the incentives would rest with the executive director of the Department of Community and Economic Development.

“Filmmakers would have to show by receipts and payroll ledgers what they’ve spent in the state, and we would rebate it back accordingly,” von der Esch said.

She’s hopeful the new fund will enable Utah to compete with richer incentives in other states. And competition is stiff.