While Sarasota’s stepped-up tax credits and beautiful locations might make it more attractive to filmmakers than it has been in the past, it still faces stiff competition from states across the nation, some of which have a decided head start.
When New Mexico and Louisiana jumped on the film-incentives bandwagon to stop losing productions to Canada in the early 2000s, they had few competitors.
But as of 2011, at least 43 states offer either tax credits or cash rebates to film and television productions, ranging from simple sales-tax or hotel-occupancy-tax relief to credits of more than 40 percent of expenditures.
More players means a greater division of the spoils. A good example is California, where in 2003, when only a few states offered incentives, two-thirds of America’s big studio films were made.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says she is confident a debt ceiling deal will be reached before the federal government defaults on its obligations on August 2.
It has the potential to be a slow week up until Friday, when the jobs report comes out.