On June 1, the state legislature will meet in a special session to hammer out spending and budget details for the coming fiscal year and filmmaking communities across Florida are making their voices heard in an effort to ensure that proper attention, and eventually resources, is given to supporting the state’s filmmaking industry. To this end, the nonprofit Film Florida has been circulating a petition calling state legislators to keep the state’s film incentives and media tax credit programs funded and operational. Locally, Sarasota County Film and Entertainment Office Director Jeanne Corcoran has been spreading the word in an attempt to lend Sarasota’s support to the endeavor.

“What we’re trying to do is garner support in large numbers from people who are directly impacted by the industry - people whose jobs are affected,” said Corcoran, “so that our legislators know that the people who put them in office and keep them in office are the very people signing the petition.” Thousands of people are directly employed by the film industry in the state, she added, and the number climbs to the tens of thousands when related industries are taken into account. Being able to offer inventives plays a crucial role in bringing projects to the area and keeping that industry going.

Not being able to offer film incentives doesn’t mean that those productions won’t happen, according to Corcoran, but that they will happen in a different community, bringing the jobs and economic benefits along with them. In the absence of a solution, the area will experience “a steady bleed-out of those people who have to go other places to earn a steady living,” according to Corcoran, listing Georgia and Louisiana as top competitors.

Corcoran hopes to see film incentives bundled into an economic development or tourism bill, someplace that would be a good fit for its nature and money-making possibilities. Previously, film incentives have gone before the legislature as part of apportionments, placing the request for funding against social goods such as elderly care and limiting its chances. $50 million would be a “rock-solid” number, according to Corcoran, but before the special session ends, she says there’s no way of knowing.

“If it does not get rolled in somewhere, then we’re going to continue to be selling from an empty wagon,” said Corcoran, before adding that regardless of the outcome, the film incentive program and the Commission would find ways to continue to function and retain the “skeleton” and support necessary for when funding does eventually come. “We’re all waiting on tenterhooks to find out where we go from here.”

The special session where the issue will be decided is June 1. Click the link below to view the petition.

View the petition here