Help Keep Production

New York Guild Members: Help Keep Production
Coming To New York By Supporting Tax Credit Legislation

Dear New York Guild Members:

The tax credit legislation which has brought so much work to our membership, the City and the State needs a boost.  The legislation has been so successful that the funds allocated for it are almost depleted. We need to contact our legislators and urge them to fund this critical initiative to keep production coming to New York.  With the downturn of the economy, these incentives are exactly what we need to grow an industry which benefits not only union members but our entire community. Please read the letter below and send it to your representatives in the NY Senate and the Assembly.

Click here to find your New York State Senator.
Click here to find your New York State Assembly Member.

Thanks,

Sam Freed
New York Division President

Screen Actors Guild Members Recommend the Extension and Enhancement of the New York State Film and TV Tax Incentive Program

Dear [Your Representative]

As a member of Screen Actors Guild New York Division, I urge you to extend and enhance the New York Sate Film and TV Tax Incentive.  New York State demonstrated extraordinary foresight by enacting the2004 Film and Television Tax Incentive Program.  Over the past several years, actors, and other workers in New York's entertainment industry, have experienced unprecedented job growth.  During a time of severe economic crisis, the industry has essentially created thousands of solid, middle-class, union jobs with benefits.  This job growth would not have been possible without the Film and TV Tax Incentive Program.

However, this thriving program is now in jeopardy. Its success has attracted record numbers of feature films and television series to New York, essentially depleting the funding of the current program.

The uncertainty of the credit funding is already being felt.  As our employers plan and budget for major motion pictures, television pilots and series in 2009 and 2010, they have begun to look for fully funded tax credit program in other states.

To maintain the job growth, New York State must extend the program and lift the cap so that employers have sufficient certainty to continue to bring productions to New York.  The decision made by New York State to fund the tax credit program has clearly proven to cost benefit to the state, rather than a drain on its resources.

Based on data collected by the Governor's Film Office, since the end of April 2008, more than 100 film and television productions have come to NY and have spent over $1.8 billion in the New York economy.  Ernst & Young has also completed a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the tax credit and reports that 19,000 jobs were created in 2007 alone.

Screen Actors Guild employment figures alone have shown significant growth – an increase of 40% background employment days between 2004 and 2008.  Businesses supporting the entertainment industry (including lumber yards, hotels, restaurants, dry cleaners and other ancillary businesses) have also benefited from the increased production. Due to the success of the program, thousands of workers now have the ability to support their families and contribute to the economy of New York State.

Both the Legislature and the Governor have fulfilled a vision to grow and diversify the New York economy and create good paying jobs with benefits.  We urge the extension of the program and lifting of the cap so that New York can continue to grow this important industry.

Respectfully,

[Your Name]