31 May What Happened To Tucson’s Film Industry?

Tucson was once a mecca for films and television productions. Over the past few years our neighbor’s over in New Mexico have done a great job of recruiting and retaining movie/TV production companies. New Mexico under Gov. Richardson’s questionable leadership, put on the full court press to get the cameras rolling. The state of NM offered lucrative tax incentives to directly rebate production companies to do business in their state. Other states have followed but NM seems to have got it right.

Arizona enacted their own $50m incentive but with a cumbersome process and some strings attached the production companies haven’t jumped on. Maybe our state legislators can look at the structure and try to make it more attractive. The problem is an entire creative class of technical movie makers have watched prospects dry up here and moved elsewhere. It may be too late to get them back. The entertainment industry is one of those business that pays labor well and thrives in good economies and bad.

From the Tucson Weekly – April 19, 2001 – Read article HERE.