Trump’s push for film tax credit finds receptive audience in Democrats

President Trump’s push for a federal tax credit to help keep more film and television production in the United States has been met with open arms from Democratic lawmakers, industry officials and entertainment experts, giving the president a rare chance for a bipartisan win.

Trump made the push for the credits last week after meeting with Jon Voight, on of the president’s “special ambassadors” to Hollywood. He also met with Reality TV star and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt last month in the Oval Office, where the two discussed a 25 percent credit.

Trump said the film industry’s exodus from the U.S. was “hurting California very badly” and called on Republicans and Democrats to “get together, and immediately craft Legislation.”

Industry officials and experts say this isn’t only about Hollywood, arguing all 50 states could benefit from more American media being produced in the country.

“This is a multi-billion-dollar industry that literally affects the lives of hundreds of 1000s of people,” Tom Nunan, who co-runs the producers’ program at the Graduate School of UCLA’s school of theater, film and TV, said. “This is no longer a California industry or business — this is a 50-state business, and it can be something that we’re very proud of as an export, as a piece of business.”

The U.S.’s major film hubs have lost business to countries that offer generous incentives for film and television production. While some states, like New York and Georgia, have state incentives, there is no federal nationwide tax break.

“This is one of the few global industries in which America remains the creative and commercial leader,” said Michael J. Wolf, the CEO of media-focused advisory firm Activate Consulting. “Other countries are using national policy to take production away from us.”

The idea was quick to receive praise from industry groups and even Democrats.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) responded to Trump’s plan with an “Amen!”

“Let’s make it happen,” he wrote on social media last week.

California Sen. Adam Schiff (D) said he was in “strong agreement” of the idea.

“Congress should immediately take up and pass a federal film tax incentive to bring back these good-paying jobs that we’ve lost to other countries,” he said. “Let’s work together — Republicans and Democrats — to get this done and bring the movie magic back to America.”

And Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) backed the proposal in comments to Fox News Digital last week.

“We’ve been promoting that for a long time. I’m glad he finally arrived at it,” Pelosi said.

“It could be a really cool thing [and] also bring us money to states that can use it,” added Omar.

The film industry has been pushing for tax breaks for a while.

“A federal incentive would be a landmark step toward bringing more production to local communities in all 50 states, strengthening our nation’s economy, and making our country a more competitive place to produce, create, and tell great stories,” Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin said in a statement.

In a hearing earlier this year, Schiff shared data that said 45 percent of all U.S. films and scripted series were shot internationally last year.

Trump has floated ways to help the industry before. Last year, he announced a 100 percent tariff on foreign films, but it was never officially implemented. The idea raised confusion on how a tariff would be placed on a virtual product. At the time, Newsom proposed to work with Trump on a $7.5 billion federal film tax incentive, but it never went anywhere.

David Offenberg, an entertainment finance professor at Loyola Marymount University, said the move would bring wide-reaching gains to the domestic entertainment industry.

“It’s not just the Hollywood studios that benefit,” Offenberg said. “Every independent producer would also theoretically benefit from these tax incentives, whether those are faith-based producers like Angel Studios, or groups of film school graduates trying to put out a piece of art that’s going to change the world, or you know a husband-and-wife team who just had a really cool story to tell.”

Paul Hardart, an entertainment industry professor at NYU, said that letting the industry leave the U.S. “kneecap[s] a business that is traditionally thought of as very American.”

Countries like Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, among others, have been drawing away filming from the U.S. for years. The UK offers a 25.5 percent tax rebate for standard films, for example, and higher rebates for independent or animated projects.

“I think oftentimes they’ve been framed as you know something for the coastal elite,” Hardart said of federal incentives. “And I think that is a shorthand that misses the bigger, broader picture of the people that really work on films.”

The proposal has critics, too. The Washington Post editorial board, which promotes free markets, wrote Tuesday that this federal incentive would just be “replicating costly and ineffective local policies at scale.”

“States don’t make back in tax revenue or economic growth the money they spend on the credits. In Georgia , the government receives only 19 cents for every dollar it spends on credits. Studios have so little need for them that they sell them to other taxpayers. Some production facilities sit empty,” the board wrote.

But proponents say it’s about the jobs that these incentives could save from going overseas.

“This is not about subsidizing big entertainment companies or Hollywood, and it’s a mistake to think about it that way,” Wolf said. “There are so many people behind the camera who are involved in film and television production — I’m talking about carpenters, electricians, camera crews, costume designers, drivers and caterers, and grips.”

And Offenberg said that while “it is not the most economically advantageous industry that the government could invest in… there are so many things about film production that people like, cities like, voters like.”

“People like it when a movie shoots in their community. They think that’s really cool,” he continued. “People like it when American culture is getting shown to people all around the world in movie theaters and on television screens… it’s a way to share with the world a little bit of us.”