Written by new-contact on Jan 14, 2011. Posted in Incentive News

New Mexico considering slashing state filming incentive by 10%

Republican Susana Martinez, the recently-elected Governor of New Mexico, is considering plans to reduce the state’s filming incentive by a dramatic 10% in line with efforts to cut public spending.

Slashing the incentive from 25% to 15% could have a massive impact on the state’s ability to attract major productions, with local studios and production companies expressing concern.

Among the individuals supporting an incentive cut is state Republican Dennis Kintigh. He argues that the state treasury is not seeing a high enough return from its support of film production.

The US Incentives Office commented: “This is an instance of a politician not understanding that the success of a film incentive programme is measured by the jobs created and retained - along with positive economic activity - rather than an immediate payback to the state treasury.”

New Mexico’s filming incentive has been instrumental in attracting major productions recently such as Thor, True Grit and critically-acclaimed TV show Breaking Bad. Marvel’s production of The Avengers is also scheduled to shoot in the state, but locals fear changes to the incentive could prompt a last-minute location change for the USD150 million project.

Georgia and Louisiana are two rival states that both offer incentives worth up to 30% of eligible expenses.

Image courtesy of New Mexico Film Office.