UPDATE | March 28 — The Colorado Senate passed House Bill 25-1005 — the Tax Incentive for Film Festivals bill — on Friday morning in a vote of 28-5. It is now headed to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' desk.
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DENVER — Just hours before the announcement that the Sundance Film Festival will be moving to Colorado, lawmakers made clear how badly they wanted that outcome.
The Colorado Senate approved the second reading of the Tax Incentive for Film Festivals bill (House Bill 25-1005) Thursday morning. As its name suggests, the bill would create two refundable tax credits for film festivals in Colorado.
“This bill is smart. If the Sundance Film Festival comes to Colorado, we will have an economic boom from it. And if that doesn’t pan out, then they don’t get the tax credits, so they have to earn the tax credits. They don’t just get it,” said State Sen. Judy Amabile, a Democrat out of Boulder County and sponsor of the bill, before Thursday’s big announcement.
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If the bill becomes law, Colorado would put aside $34 million in tax incentives over the next 10 years for a film festival that sells more than 100,000 tickets and attracts more than 20,000 out-of-state attendees. Colorado would also provide $500,000 annually to support other, smaller film festivals in the state.
The tax credits would be administered through the Colorado Office of Economic Development.
“All across the state, we have film festivals, and they all will have the opportunity to benefit from some of these tax credits,” Amabile told Denver7.
The Colorado House of Representatives voted 43-17 on March 13 to pass the bill. In a debate on March 12, State Representative Ken DeGraaf, a Republican out of El Paso County, made his opposition to the bill clear.
“This bill is very specifically asking the citizens of all of Colorado to invest their money into a program where that money that they invest will have dividends returned to the state and… the community of Boulder,” said DeGraaf.
The bill decreases income tax revenue, which is subject to TABOR.
The bill needs one more vote in the Colorado Senate before heading to Governor Jared Polis' desk.
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