BILL NUMBER: S689          REVISED 3/1/2019

SPONSOR: ORTT
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to repeal certain provisions of the tax law,
relating to the Empire state film production credit and the Empire state
film post production credit

 
PURPOSE:

Repeals the Empire state film production and the Empire state film post
production tax credit.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 repeals Section 4 of the Tax Law related to the Empire state
production tax credit.

Section 2 repeals Section 12 of part Q of Chapter 57 of the laws of 2010
as it creates the Empire State film and Empire state post production
film tax credit.

              

Section 3 repeals clause (E) of subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (b) of
subdivision 1 of section 210-B of the tax law relating to the term qual-
ified film production facility and qualified film production company.

Section 4 repeals Subdivision 20 of Section 210-B of the tax law relat-
ing to allowances of credit.

Section 5 repeals Subdivision 32 of section 210-B of the tax law relat-
ing to allowances of credit.

Section 6 repeals clause (v) of subparagraph (B) of paragraph 2 of
subdivision (a) of section 606 of the tax law relating to the definition
of qualified film production credit and qualified post production credit
for the chapter.

Section 7 repeals clause (xxii) of subparagraph (B) of paragraph 1 of
subsection (i) of section 606 of the tax law eliminates a reference to
the empire state film production tax credit.

Section 8 repeals clause (xxxi) of subparagraph (B) of paragraph 1 of
subsection 1 of section 606 of the tax law relating to the empire state
post production film tax credit.

Section 9 repeals subsection (gg) of section 606 of the tax law refer-
encing the empire state film production credit.

Section 10 repeals subsection (qq) of section 606 of the tax law' as
added by section 15 of part Q of Chapter 57 of the Laws of 2060 removing
language related to the empire state film production and empire state
post production film tax credit, as well as referencing $420 million to
be made available for the program.

Section 1.1 repeals subdivisions (b) and (c) of section 1201-A of the
tax law repeals credits against taxes administered by a city of over a
population of one million relating to the empire state production and
empire state post production tax credit.

Section 12 is the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:

At a time of a deficit, we must look at subsidies the state provides.
This $420 million tax credit to the multi-million television an d film
industry has the dubious distinction of being one that provided $5
million to Harvey Weinstein's Company. As we are seeing more and more
instances of high-level television and film stars being accused of being
sexual predators, New York must reconsider the monetary support being
provided to this industry. New York State can stand on its own without
the need to provide this corporate welfare to companies that do not need
this funding to succeed and many are already located in New York, the
others are almost exclusively in California. Reports of these credits
show that the benefits are unproven. Since 2009, 10 states have ended
similar tax credits.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2017-2018: S. 6968 referred to Investigations

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

$420 million is spent on the Film Tax Credit, and $25 million is spent
on the Post Production Credit.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:  This act shall take effect immediately.