The Louisiana Film Entertainment Association is preparing to test the constitutionality of Louisiana’s new law capping film tax credit expenditures at $180 million annually for the next three years, The Shreveport Times reports.
“We would very much like to see the constitutional challenge proceed as quickly as possible and resolve as quickly as possible, so we can resume the process of having those companies send their projects to Louisiana,” LFEA President Will French says.
Louisiana was on pace to pay out more than $250 million in film credits for the fiscal year that begins July 1. While the new law caps the total expenditure, no cap exists on the number of credits.
State Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, agrees the new law, approved in the closing minutes of the recent legislative session, may have a problem.
“What is does is tell somebody in any given tax year, that the (film tax credits) may be worth what the state says it’s worth or we may not take it at all, and they’ll have to come back next year and try to use it,” Leger says. “I think when you take something of value and either diminish that value or deplete that value entirely without adequate compensation, you are doing something that (is) unlawful.”
As Daily Report first reported, Celtic Studios Executive Director Patrick Mulhearn has said Disney-ABC has stopped new production in Louisiana due to changes in the state tax film credit program, a claim that was later made by Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne.
But U.S. Sen. David Vitter, who faces Dardenne in October’s governor’s race, disputed those claims, saying Disney has assured him there is no self-imposed moratorium on new projects in the state.
