Sens. West (l) and Deuell: Film incentives coming to a Senate near you soon

For a bill that everyone likes, House Bill 873, the film incentive reform package, seems to be taking a long time to get passed.

It was supposed to come up for a vote in the Senate today, but that’s been shoved back a day. Grabbing a quick word with Senate sponsor Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, and he explained that there’s no real opposition. The problem is purely administrative: It had been put at the top of today’s intent calendar this morning, but a House bill can’t be top of the calendar. So that means it had to be pulled, and will be back tomorrow – in the correct part of the running order.

On the positive side, Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, has now signed on as a co-sponsor. West had been unhappy with the earliest House draft of the bill because it excluded metropolitan Dallas from the definition of “underutilized and economically distressed area.” With that section struck out, he’s fully on-board. Bonus for Travis County: That also mean metropolitan Austin is included again.

This article appears in April 10 • 2009.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.