TXMPA Says Incentives Are Working

TXMPA President Don Stokes recently sent a letter to its members about the projected shortfall in our state's budget and its leadership is already meeting with key legislators to make them fully aware of the successes of the program. To assist them in effectively conveying the message, they have contracted with an advocacy firm Greenburg Traurig, LLP and Lawrence Collins.

Upcoming plans for Lobby Day 2011 are already underway to build upon the success from previous lobby days. Stokes also states:

"To date, our state incentive program has generated over $610 million dollars in new in-state spending and has accounted for over 55,000 jobs for Texans. An independent economic impact study will show how this equates in actual dollars returned to the state. We feel confident that our program and this report will prove the viability of our efforts. Still, we need to make improvements to the program in order to grow and spread the work across the entire state."

Currently, TXMPA is enjoying an all time high in membership, but it only represents a small fraction of industry professionals across the state. It needs more financial resources to see through the legislative session and they are encouraging you, friends, colleagues and everyone in the industry to be a paid member.

The 82nd Texas Legislative session begins January 11, 2011.

Texas Film/TV Productions In Jeopardy

The state will be making budget cuts which could affect media productions in the State of Texas. Last April, the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program went into effect after a smaller incentive program was established during the 2007 legislative session.

Before the new program, Texas' previous incentive project was ranked among the worst for the amount of money and number of jobs offered. Paul Alvardo-Dykstra, Central Texas Representative of TXMPA says,

"Since April 2009, we've seen a tremendous uptick in the amount of film, television, game production and commercial production in Texas."

However, the local media industry can be unsteady. "Friday Night Lights" finished shooting its final season and two other Texas-based productions, "My Generation" and "Lone Star," were both canceled after two episodes.

"Especially in a downturn, this isn't something we want to cut off. We want to maintain and keep it going because it's working. Three out of four major networks now have been making TV in Texas and that's huge for us,"

Alvarado-Dykstra said.

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