{"id":327245,"date":"2026-05-01T06:22:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=327245"},"modified":"2026-05-01T06:22:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:52:01","slug":"trump-backed-candidate-joins-call-for-unlimited-film-and-tv-incentive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/trump-backed-candidate-joins-call-for-unlimited-film-and-tv-incentive\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump-Backed Candidate Joins Call for Unlimited Film and TV Incentive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSteve Hilton, the Trump-endorsed candidate for California governor, joined in calls on Thursday for a limiteless state subsidy for film and TV production.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tJoined by Gloria Romero, who&#8217;s running for lieutenant governor, Hilton unveiled his proposal outside the shuttered Cinerama Dome, which has change into an emblem of Hollywood decline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThat is an emergency,\u201d Hilton said, saying the industry had suffered from \u201cbenign neglect\u201d under 16 years of Democratic Party rule in California. \u201cWe&#8217;re allowing it to die, because other states in America and other countries are aggressively competing for the work and the roles that go together with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMatt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have also called for eliminating the $750 million cap on state subsidies. Like them, Hilton didn&#8217;t offer an estimate of how much that will cost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIt depends upon how successful we&#8217;re,\u201d he said, noting that while there can be an upfront cost, the increased incentive would also generate economic advantages. \u201cI need to scale back spending, which implies that we are able to reduce taxes, and it is a version of a tax cut.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tTom Steyer, one in all the leading Democratic contenders, has also proposed increasing the $750 million cap, though he has not suggested eliminating it altogether. In response to Hilton\u2019s plan, a spokesperson for Steyer emphasized that he also strongly opposes the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros., which is predicted to cost 1000&#8217;s of industry jobs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cTom\u2019s the one candidate who will rise up to corporate monopolies and protect working people,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cTrump-backed Steve Hilton would rubber stamp mega-mergers like Warner Bros.-Paramount being pushed by MAGA billionaires.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn an interview, Hilton presented his ties to the White House as a positive, and said he would push for a federal incentive for film production that may layer on top of state subsidies. He said he wants the combined California and federal rebate to total 60%. He has met with the Motion Picture Association, Hollywood labor unions and Jon Voight, Trump\u2019s special ambassador to Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cJon actually is a friend of mine,\u201d he said. \u201cHe endorsed me on day one in all my campaign. The president\u2019s endorsed me. You understand, we\u2019re a team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHilton also wants the California incentive \u2014 currently set at 35%-40% of below-the-line costs \u2014 to incorporate above-the-line salaries for actors, directors, writers and producers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAmongst major production hubs, Georgia is the just one with an uncapped tax credit. It covers 30% of above- and below-the-line costs, and peaked at $1.3 billion in 2022, before falling to about half that amid the industrywide slump. California\u2019s industry is larger than Georgia\u2019s, with a production workforce about eight to 10 times greater, in keeping with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWe would like it to be high enough that it gets attention,\u201d Hilton said. \u201cIt is a behavioral query. What do we&#8217;d like to do to get people to rethink \u2014 urgently \u2014 and reconsider production in California and in Hollywood?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tBecause the leading Republican within the polls, Hilton is a heavy favorite to make it into the November runoff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steve Hilton, the Trump-endorsed candidate for California governor, joined in calls on Thursday for a limiteless state subsidy for film and TV production. Joined by Gloria Romero, who&#8217;s running for lieutenant governor, Hilton unveiled his proposal outside the shuttered Cinerama Dome, which has change into an emblem of Hollywood decline. \u201cThat is an emergency,\u201d Hilton [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":327246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20669],"tags":[1867,4582,2184,46345,1248,46655,8063],"class_list":["post-327245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hollywood","tag-call","tag-candidate","tag-film","tag-incentive","tag-joins","tag-trumpbacked","tag-unlimited"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327248,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327245\/revisions\/327248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}