Assembly Standing Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourism

Good morning. I want to welcome you to this. Morning'S hearing of July 82025 for the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports and tourism. We have one item on our agenda today that is SB756 by Senator Ramos.

The Bill will have two main witnesses and support court in opposition and each main witness will get two minutes for their testimony. We invite you to feel free to support or opposition through the Position portal on the community website, so of course become part of the official record of the Bill.

Our hearing room will be open for attendance of this hearing this morning. We are in room 444 at the Capitol and all are encouraged to watch the hearing from its live stream on the Assembly's website.

For those attending in person which disrupts, disturbs or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the hearing is prohibited and continuous discussions will result in individual being escorted from Capitol Building by the Assembly Sergeants. Want to thank you all for your participation.

At this moment we do not yet have a quorum, but we will begin this hearing of the Subcommitee and Senator, when you are ready, I invite you to provide some comments for SB756.

Thank you, Chairman Ward, and committee members. I'm honored to be with you this morning, presenting SB756, which strengthens California's investment in film and television by improving how we measure who benefits from the 330 million annual film tax credit, ensuring that those benefits are shared equitably. This bill bills on broader efforts this year to improve the program's accountability.

SB756 adds a critical layer of focusing on equity and transparency so that we understand not just how much we invest, but who truly benefits. As a senator representing South LA, I often see productions in my district communities like Baldwin Hills, Leimert Park, parts of historic South LA.

Yet many residents rarely have access to these good union jobs and the productions that our tax dollars create. This is a missed opportunity, a missed opportunity to multiply our investments. We could do more to improve how we track where these projects are happening, who's working on them, and how to ensure an inclusive workforce.

That is, even though we expect this kind of information in other sectors that receive public funding, we realize that in this industry, we have not been able to track as closely.

SB756 directs the California Film Commission to expand its existing reporting and diversity assessment practices so that all data would be collected confidentially through certified payroll and third-party systems with no new mandates. As the legislative analyst noted in its 2025 report, better demographic and geographic data is essential to evaluating program impact and equity.

And quite frankly, we have done so much work, many around this table, to ensure that we have the strongest film and television tax credit program, I think, in the nation. We're focusing on work and jobs as well as sustaining the industry here in California.

But we only know our progress by what we are able to track and show in terms of where workers are working, what zip codes they're from, and what are some of the disadvantaged status that they may hold. I think that helps us to ensure that this investment is a multiplier for so many communities.

And with that, I respectfully ask for your aye vote.

Thank you, Senator. At this time, I think we will establish quorum. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

[Roll Call]

And we have a quorum. Senator, do you have any primary witnesses in support today?

Not today.

Good morning, Mr. Chair. Dylan Hoffman, on behalf of the California Arts Advocates, in support.

Okay, well, thank you. Is there any other members of the public here wishing to express a position of support?

Thank you. And are there any witnesses in opposition to the bill here today, or any members of the public wishing to express a statement of opposition? Okay, seeing none, we'll turn it back to committee comments and be with us, Assemblymember Quirk-Silva.

Good morning, Senator. Yeah, I definitely support this bill. Definitely think we need this data. And as you know, through our budget subcommittee, we heard quite a bit about the film tax credit. And so this data is important.

I do have a question on the commission, the film commission as a whole, because this has come up in the past, actually, pretty very focused on the lack of data. And that was actually about three to four years ago where there was a little bit of concern of why this wasn't already happening.

So I guess, and it could be future information. But what is the makeup of the film commission and how are they appointed?

So the film commission, like so many of our commissions are appointed by our governor. And because of our work, a lot of our work over the last two and a half years, we have really tried to expand that commission to have vital voices that really represent California.

I think the other area where we saw some deficits in the commission was just staffing.

We've done a lot of legislation in terms of ensuring that there are diversity requirements in the film stage development in particular, but in general, in all of the film and diversity tax credits, the problem is we didn't have a uniform standard for collecting that data. So one project might be collecting oranges, the other one is collecting pomegranates.

And it's sort of hard to tell exactly what we have and to be able to aggregate the data to tell us a full story. And we had, I think, at the time, one staffer within the Film Commission responsible for monitoring, you know, what was essentially 330 million dollars worth of tax credits.

Our efforts in the last round, which your house had a lot to do with, under filting leadership and Nancy Skinner on our house, we work to expand those positions, to bring two additional staff to the Film Commission to be able to actually more tightly and routinely oversee that data collection.

I think what we're doing here in this process is saying let's have some standards across all applications so that we can look at what zip codes the workers are coming from who are funded through the tax credit. And we also began to move the needle in terms of what disadvantaged communities also have access to those.

So in this bill that we've moved here, we've taken some amendments. And so we will be tracking zip codes, we will be tracking veteran status. We think this is, you know, the foundation of a universal monitoring and tracking program that helps us with accountability. So we know how important the investment is.

We know how important it is to keep this industry here in California, but we also know how important it is for us to be able to track and measure our success in terms of the workforce.

Absolutely.

So with that additional staffing and now with this piece of legislation, we should be confident that this data can be compiled and then put forward to the legislative body.

And with that, I move the bill.

Thank you. We have a motion, a second Assemblymember, McKinnor.

Yes. Good morning, Senator. And assemblymember is 22 people on the Film Commission. I'm so proud of you for carrying this bill. About two and a half years ago, we stood together to get tracking in the film tax credit because we believe that we need to know, we need to make sure that our, the money is used correctly.

We need to make sure that if people are going to pull these diversity credits, they are actually going to use them the right way and that they're actually hiring, training, and retaining a diverse group of people for the television and motion picture industry.

Again, as you, as you talked about taxes, we all pay taxes. This is all of our money that the film industry is getting. And so we, I do believe that it should be given that everybody should be working there, the motion picture industry should look like California. So I thank you for this continued work.

I thank you for partnering with me as well. And I will be voting for this bill, of course, today. Thank you.

Thank you, Assemblymember. Any other members' questions or comments? All right. Well, seeing none, Senator, I want to thank you for bringing this bill forward as well. We've heard a lot through this committee and through both houses as well about the fight to keep film and television production here in California.

We've had a lot of evidence from a lot of our industry's union workers that we need to make sure these productions are happening here for those who are living in our state, and the jobs that we want to have right here in our home communities.

We know a lot of the economic impacts and benefits that have the state, we like to be able to see through the increase we've had through AB1138 and our budget. They've been heavily debated throughout the process.

But it's important that we make sure that we are collecting the right data, that we are giving a lot of disruptions. We know disruptions happen to production in our state. We want to make sure there's compliance with a lot of the data collection so that we're maximizing that opportunity for our jobs for our workers.

So we're very appreciative that you are including the zip code specific data as well. I think it's going to be able to help us understand some of the hiring evidence that's important to be able to document.

So we'll have a lot of evidence for the benefits of this program and then further feedback to the Legislature as well for continuous improvements, as well for the important tax credit. We know we've increased that through recent budget actions, 750 million dollars.

So a lot of opportunity that's out there, and I believe that state is going to be critical to the future of our industry, and importantly for the future for California workers. So with that, happy to be very supportive of the bill here today and invite you to close.

Thank you, and appreciate your comments. And again, everyone's work around the table, especially Assemblymember McKinnor, and her efforts around diversity and tracking, and monitoring. This is an industry that's important to California homegrown. We want to make sure that we do all we can to grow and support it through what is a global restructuring.

And I think our public and private partnerships will go a long way, and this data will help guide our steps as we continue to build a strong California industry and that supports and retains workers from the state. So with that, I am very grateful for your aye vote.

Thank you, Madam Secretary. Please call the roll.

SB756, the action is do pass to appropriations committee. [Roll Call].

That bill will be out eight to zero, with one member not present and voting. And with that, we have reached the end of our agenda, and we are adjourned.

Thank you.