Local media companies discuss impact of senate bill 22

AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/ KCIT) — During the 89th Texas Legislative session the senate approved Senate Bill 22.

The bill directs the comptroller to deposit $500 million in the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund every two years until 2035. Chief Executive Officer for Sharpened Iron Studios Sean Doherty said the move makes filming in Texas more attractive and competitive.

“It takes our current program and significantly increases it,” said Doherty. “One of the biggest differences is our base rebate goes from a maximum of 22.5 %, which is what it is now, to 25%.”

According to Doherty, since passing SB 22 Sharpened Iron Studios has received an influx of calls from production companies and studios throughout the country and U.K asking how the program works, how they can apply and what locations are available around Amarillo and surrounding areas.

“We’ve said for a while that one of our goals here at SIS is to turn Amarillo into the Hollywood of the High Plains. That’s what this is going to do. Amarillo is such a great location to film in such a wonderful film friendly town with a community, city council, county commissions that want film here,” explained Doherty.

Economically Doherty shared there is a lot to gain from increased funding in the incentive program.

“The governor’s office anticipates that for every dollar spent in incentive, we see $4.69 in direct economic impact. Well, you multiply that times $1.5 billion and you’re looking in the neighborhood of something like $8-9 billion in return. Over the course of the next 10 years, Amarillo stands to bring in a tremendous amount of that.”

Film Commissioner for Visit Amarillo and for the greater Amarillo Film Commission shared the Texas Panhandle has a lot of to offer when it comes to filming locations.

“Amarillo is great because of our topography,” said Bass. “We certainly have some urban settings like downtown. We have great neighborhoods to film in, but we have beautiful canyons, Palo Duro Canyon, the river Canadian River, mesas, just about every kind of crop you can imagine, all within a 50 mile radius of Amarillo.”

Bass shared that the revitalized film incentive program also makes filming in Texas more attractive and helps economic development and job growth.

” There are a lot of folks in Texas that work in film, but often they go somewhere else to work in those films, whether it’s Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, et cetera. And more projects in Texas allow more Texans to work in Texas, to live in Texas and make a living here,” said Bass.