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Colorado governor signs bill tightening guardrails on film-incentive spending

The bill comes nine months after an audit found that the program was giving away money to ineligible projects and to producers who did not submit paperwork,.
Gov. Hickenlooper (3/13/18)

Gov. John Hickenlooper on Thursday signed into law a bill that tightens up financial guardrails around how Colorado’s film-incentive program distributes taxpayer money, a program hit in a hightly critical audit last year.

The bill comes nine months after an audit found that the program was giving away money to ineligible projects and to producers who did not submit paperwork,.

Senate Bill 103 — sponsored by Sens. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, and Jim Smallwood, R-Parker — clarifies that contracts must be approved between producers and the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media before any incentives can be distributed. It also narrows down the definition of an “in-state” company that is eligible to receive the film incentives at a lower spending level and permits the state to take back incentive money if it is found later that a company was not eligible to receive it.

The film-incentives program — which permits selected movie, television, commercial and video-game companies to receive back as much as 20 percent of their in-state spending if they meet minimum requirements for expenditures and in-state hiring — has been controversial since Hickenlooper signed it into law in 2012. While it has attracted significant projects to Colorado and revived a largely non-existent film industry here, both Republicans and Democrats have questioned whether it has been the best use of taxpayer funds.

Read more at the Denver Business Journal: http://bit.ly/2pgiWxM

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