Bill would offer filmmaker incentives

BOISE – Idaho’s geographic landscape may be ideal for motion pictures: snow-capped peaks, stark desert vistas, emerald lakes.

But the economic landscape for moviemaking is a different story, proponents of the state’s tiny domestic film industry say.

On Thursday, the state Department of Commerce and Labor introduced a proposal in the Legislature to change that. Roger Madsen, the agency director, wants to reimburse all sales and use taxes for productions that spend more than $200,000 within the state.

The bill – crafted over the summer by a task force appointed by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to help draw Tinseltown dollars – is meant to help Idaho compete with incentive programs in Oregon, Utah, Washington, Montana and Canada.

The task force estimates its proposed incentives could bring filmmaking worth about $5 million per year to Idaho and cost the state $50,000 in rebates each year – assuming $1 million in taxable local purchases.

“Idaho has residents with film-industry experience, but they have to go out of state or out of the country for these jobs,” Madsen told the House Revenue and Taxation Committee.

Under the proposal, a production tax rebate would be given to companies that spend the minimum amount in Idaho over three years. The incentives would end in 2013, though they could be renewed.

The state hopes to attract small- and medium-size productions such as “Napoleon Dynamite,” filmed in Preston three years ago for less than $500,000. The movie generated $44 million in box-office revenue, according to the Rotten Tomatoes Web site.

The task force expects separate income tax credit legislation for movie production to be introduced later this session.

The value of Idaho media production rose to $28 million in 2003, the latest year for which figures were available, from $17 million in 1997, according to the Idaho Film Bureau.

“This is about leveling the playing field with other states surrounding Idaho,” said Ben Shedd, a task force member and two-year Idaho resident who won the 1978 Academy Award for his documentary “The Flight of the Gossamer Condor” about human-powered aircraft.

For example, Oregon has no sales tax, gives a 10 percent expenditures rebate and a 6.2 percent payroll-tax rebate for film-crew members hired locally. It also gives breaks to industry vendors. Oregon expects to get $12 million in additional revenue in exchange for the $1 million in rebates, officials there say.

Louisiana and New Mexico are considered among the most generous states for film productions, and officials in those states say they’re reaping the rewards.

In fiscal 2005, before Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana was the site of about $500 million worth of media production – more than double the $200 million figure of 2003, according to its governor’s office.

In New Mexico, where six movies are in production, the industry’s economic impact has been estimated at more than $500 million since 2003, the state’s Economic Development Department said.

Idaho has been the site of several Hollywood productions, including “Dante’s Peak,” filmed in the Silver Valley in 1996, and Clint Eastwood films “Bronco Billy” and “Pale Rider” and the Michael Cimino western “Heaven’s Gate,” all in the 1980s.

But these days states without tax incentives for filmmakers are at a competitive disadvantage, said Peg Owens of the Idaho Film Bureau, part of the state Commerce Department.

For example, Owens said, Wyoming is supposedly the setting for the cowboy love story “Brokeback Mountain.”

But the movie wasn’t filmed in Wyoming. It was made in New Mexico and Canada, which has built its $5 billion film industry with incentives.

People entranced by the movie’s rugged setting still want to come to Wyoming, said Olivia Martinez of the Wyoming Film Office.