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Update on the State Financial Incentive
(released 8/1/2006)


Background Info

The Florida Legislature allocated $20,000,000 to the incentive for this fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2006, to June 30, 2007. This is an improvement from last year's $10,000,000. According to the governing statute, 60% ($12,000,000) goes into Queue One – feature films, TV movies, commercials, music videos, industrial or educational films, promotional films, documentaries, TV specials, and digital-media-effects productions; while 40% ($8,000,000) goes into Queue Two – TV pilots, and TV series (drama, comedy, reality, telenovela, soap, game show, miniseries, etc.) On Feb. 1, 2007, both queues will merge into one for the remainder of the fiscal year. Any remaining funds at the end of the fiscal year do not rollover. They go back to the state's general fund.

2006/2007 Incentive Totals (as of August 1, 2006)

Queue One has 14 qualified productions. Combined, they are expected to spend an estimated $67,942,205 in Florida, paid to Florida residents and Florida businesses, before receiving their maximum 15% rebate of $10,464,260. That leaves a balance of $1,535,739 currently available in Queue One.

Queue Two has 10 qualified productions. Combined, they are expected to spend an estimated $35,944,124 in Florida, paid to Florida residents and Florida businesses, before receiving their combined maximum 15% cash rebate of $5,011,615. Two digital media companies are certified in the total as well. Currently, $2,988,385 remains available in Queue Two.

Combining the two queues, productions with estimated Florida expenditures of $103,886,329 are qualified to receive no more than $15,475,875 from the incentive fund. That reflects a direct Return-On-Investment (ROI) of 6.71-to-1.

Currently, of the 24 currently qualified projects, 12 are in South Florida, 11 are in Central Florida, and 1 is in North Florida.

*These numbers will likely change as the remaining funds are certified, and may even change after that due to productions getting cancelled or postponed and losing their certification for incentive funds. If and when that happens, those certified funds go back into the proper queue and are allocated to the next qualified applicant.

For this reason, even after all of the incentive funds are certified to qualified productions, the State Film Office still strongly urges productions to apply and get in line for the incentive. A number of productions last fiscal year did just that, and did receive incentive funds when productions forfeited their certified funds.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the incentive program, please visit www.filminflorida.com or contact the State Film Commissioner Paul Sirmons at (877) FLA-FILM or Paul.Sirmons@MyFlorida.com

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