TAMPA BAY| The Florida legislature’s refusal to add $20 million to the empty coffers of the state’s entertainment tax incentive program has dealt a blow to everyone from indie filmmakers to government film commissioners.
It has also put a ding in the agenda of theTampa Hillsborough Economic DevelopmentCorp. A stated goal in its 2013 annual report was to recruit “at least one $50 million feature film to Tampa Bay” by fall 2016, along with steadily increasing “commercial productions and independent films in Hillsborough County.”
Without offering tax breaks, the job become all the more difficult. “It makes it challenging, for sure,” said Rick Homans, CEO of the Tampa Hillsborough EDC at a Tampa Bay Business Journal economic development roundtable on Monday. “We’re competitive on a lot of fronts compared to other locations, but not when it comes to checking that [incentives] box.”