Georgia’s film industry took off after the General Assembly significantly strengthened the state income tax credit for movie and TV productions in 2008. The industry’s annual economic impact has soared from a relatively paltry $242 million the year before lawmakers upped the ante on the credit to $4.4 billion last year.
Now, the Peach State’s musical performers and producers are urging lawmakers to give them the same boost by sweetening the incentives the state offers their industry.
“We see what has happened with the film business,” Chuck Leavell, the Georgia-based keyboardist for The Rolling Stones and previously for The Allman Brothers Band, told members of a legislative study committee. “You’re going to attract all manner of performers … if we can put these incentives in place.”
The Joint Georgia Music Heritage Study Committee began a series of meetings Sept. 7 looking for ways to grow the music industry in a state with a rich and diverse musical history including the Allman Brothers, Otis Redding, Little Richard, James Brown, Johnny Mercer, Ray Charles and Jason Aldean.
The General Assembly passed legislation in 2017 providing tax incentives to musical productions, including both live and recorded performances.
But the tax credit is due to expire at the end of this year unless the legislature renews it. See more here.
