From the vote count, a tax incentive bill to benefit production companies that film primarily in rural Utah appeared to easily garner enough support to clear both chambers of the state Legislature.
But the measure proved controversial with its share of outspoken skeptics.
On March 4 – the last day of this year’s general session – a pared down version of SB49 granted two years of tax incentives (capped at $12 million per year) to film companies that would accomplish 75 percent of their production in the state’s numerous rural counties.
In the House, representatives voted 50-22 in favor of the bill, while Senators approved it 22-7.
On the House floor, Rep. Timothy Hawkes, a Republican from Centerville, did not hold back in stating his opposition to adding another $24 million to an existing statewide film incentive program – launched in 2011 – that already provides about $6.8 million per year.
“These incentives historically have not delivered as promised and there’s a wealth of independent research to back that up,” Hawkes said. “The way this is funded is when they spend the money and show the receipts, they’re written a check out of our education fund. The money comes right from the schoolkids.”
Three weeks earlier, Sen. Todd Weiler – a Woods Cross Republican – expressed different concerns to the Senate about SB49.
“It’s important to understand that most companies that come here to film pay almost no taxes because of the other tax breaks they get,” Weiler said. “So the bottom line is that this is a pure subsidy that’s taking money from taxpayers and giving it to the movie production companies.”
Both Hawkes and Weiler were among those who voted against SB49.
Fierce competition
Jeff Johnson, president of the Motion Picture Association of Utah, began casting movies in the beehive state almost three decades ago – before the time incentives had begun to stretch around the globe.
“In the 1990s, Utah was one of the top five in the nation for making films. But in about 2001, Canada started offering tax incentives and they started to take away some of our business,” Johnson said. “And toward 2003, our business went to almost nothing – we actually lost 4/5ths of the business we had.”
Now at least 30 states and 70 countries offer tax incentives to companies who film inside their borders, Johnson said.
“Some of (those incentives) are really crazy, some are more conservative like Utah’s,” Johnson said. “But just the fact that we have tax incentives really helps bring filmmakers to Utah. It’s basically the way people do it now.”
Virginia Pearce, who directs the Utah Film Commission – a state agency within the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity – said that Utah’s incentives account for about 86 percent of film production that happens in the state.
“And we’ve really grown as a film industry,” Pearce said. “The incentive program that was set up by the legislators in 2011 is the same program we’ve had for 10 years. And I think many of them felt like it was time to grow.”
Even so, Pearce noted that Utah’s allocation for incentives is one of the lowest in the U.S.
“On average, a production company will spend between $100,000 and $250,000 a day,” Pearce said, “and a lot of those companies come to us during the off-season – so it helps keep hotels and restaurants and the people who work there busy.”
Epic backdrops
San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams – a self-described lifelong cowboy – touted the many scenic vistas etched across his rural county.
“It’s world class … you can’t put a price on it,” Adams said of the 7,993 square miles where fewer than 15,000 people reside.
Off the top of his head, Adams tallied seven national parks, several state parks and much more.
“We have the iconic Monument Valley area on the Navajo reservation, we have Natural Bridges National Monument, Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Dead Horse Point State Park, Goosenecks State Park, Canyonlands, the Needles District, the confluence of the Green and the Colorado Rivers that can be seen from Canyonlands,” Adams said by phone, quickly naming some of his county’s feature destinations. “It’s pretty extensive actually.”
However, San Juan County has only three municipalities – Blanding, Bluff and Monticello – that provide services such as restaurants and motels.
And Adams believes his and other rural Utah counties can benefit greatly from film incentives that would attract film production crews and also put some of the jaw-dropping scenery on the big screen.
“The state of Utah will incentivize people all over the Wasatch Front economically and won’t even bat an eye,” Adams said. “But for rural Utah, this is a way to incentivize economic development. “
According to an analysis conducted by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, every dollar in state film incentives paid out in 2015 was linked to Utahns earning an additional $6.20 and the state’s gross domestic product rising $7.
For Adams, that multiplier effect speaks volumes.
“If somebody comes to my county and spends $100 million on a movie set and then we give them a rebate post-performance, that is helpful to my county,” he said.
Come back, Kevin!
Some people believe that lawmakers tailored SB49 specifically with the iconic actor and producer Kevin Costner in mind. Pearce acknowledged that Costner was one factor shaping the push to increase Utah’s film incentives.
“But this is a project that a few of the senators have been working on for a number of years,” Pearce said, pointing to Sen. Ron Winterton (who sponsored SB49) in particular. “Ever since we were unable to keep Yellowstone in state, he heard from many of his constituents in Summit and Wasatch Counties that it was a big blow to them with the spending they were used to seeing from the production.”
The first three seasons of Yellowstone were filmed in Utah, but Montana managed to woo the series away with more attractive incentives in 2020.
But according to a Jan. 26 story in Deadline.com, Costner will return to Utah in August to direct and star in his new film Horizon.
Mike Fleming Jr. of Deadline.com reported that the film is intended to be “expansive,” focusing on a “15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west.”
“America’s expansion into the west was one that was fraught with peril and intrigue from the natural elements, to the interactions with the indigenous peoples who lived on the land, and the determination and at many times ruthlessness of those who sought to settle it,” Costner told Deadline. “Horizon tells the story of that journey in an honest and forthcoming way, highlighting the points of view and consequences of the characters’ life and death decisions.”
As a casting director, Johnson touted Utah’s widespread talent pool and also its versatility for movie-makers: “You can go from desert to mountains to city in an hour and a half.”
According to data gathered by the Utah Film Commission, displaying Utah’s splendor cinematically amounts to effective, eye-popping advertising. Pearce cited a 2021 study showing that four in 10 Utah tourists chose to visit the state due to a film or TV series.
Over the past decade, “film tourism” resulted in 2.2 million Utah trips and $6 billion in value to the state, Pearce said by email.
