Donnelly On CA Risking Losing Hollywood: “The Show Must Go On”
As California Assemblyman and Conservative gubernatorial candidate, Tim Donnelly stated on May 6, “The show will not go on in California.” Other states, banking on taking the entertainment industry away from “Hollywood” are offering them massive tax incentives. It’s been so successful that two states are now being referred to as “Hollywood South”—Louisiana and Georgia.
According to Tim’s assembly website:
AB 1780, modeled from these successful tax incentive programs in other states, would have offered a 20% base credit. An additional 10% would be earned for including a California promotional logo and an extra 2.5% would be earned from shooting the production in a major city zone. If the production was shot outside of a major city zone, an extra 5% would be given, for a total of up to 35%.The bill, which would have made California competitive with other states by establishing a film tax incentive up to 35% of the qualified expenditures attributable to the production in California of one or more qualified entertainment project failed by a single vote in the Arts and Entertainment Committee.
A lot of you might be happy that the film and television industry would find its demise because of the political propaganda and smut they produce. But this is about JOBS! Assemblyman Donnelly will work to create keep and create them—and we need to keep the studios here as they are just now getting the message and living up to the fact that we want more wholesome, fun and more faith-based movies
Donnelly concluded, “This was not only about the major studios; this was about the small, independent film producers, this was about the music industry that writes the score, and this was about the tens of thousands of little guys, both union and nonunion, who used to work below the line building the sets, running the cameras, catering the food and being the backbone of a once vibrant movie industry. People should not have to leave California to pursue the California dream and continue our tradition of making great movies.”
Over 100 years ago, the film industry came West to escape what they are now experiencing again—only then they were being trodden on in the East. Now they are going South and Southeast to. First the East, then the West. Where will they run to next with the oppression of States’ rights?
The History of the Film Industry
Who Knew?
In the early 1900s, filmmakers began moving to the Los Angeles area to get away from the strict rules imposed by Thomas Edison‘s Motion Picture Patents Company in New Jersey. Since most of the moviemaking patents were owned by Edison, independent filmmakers were often sued by Edison to stop their productions.
To escape his control, and because of the ideal weather conditions and varied terrain, moviemakers began to arrive in Los Angeles to make their films. If agents from Edison’s company came out west to find and stop these filmmakers, adequate notice allowed for a quick escape to Mexico.
Working without disturbance from Edison, the Biograph Company moved west with actors Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and others, to make their films. After beginning filming in Los Angeles, the company decided to explore the neighboring area and stumbled across Hollywood.