So You Want to Be in Pictures

After some last-minute wrangling, Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, managed to get all $60 million requested for the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program into the budget (in part, by paying for it from a FEMA reimbursement to the state for disaster recovery in the last budget cycle – see "Film News," Screens). But two more bills made it out of the session that could give a boost to Austin's creative industries. Senate Bill 1929, by Austin Sen. Kirk Watson, gives the Texas Film Commission the power to designate up to 10 media production development zones around the state, providing sales-tax exemptions for opening, expanding, and maintaining studios and production facilities. Meanwhile, House Bill 2521, by Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, makes Texas put its own money where its mouth is, by instructing the comptroller and other state agencies in need of ad campaign work to give job preference to qualified Texas-based production companies and ad agencies.