Film industry incentives package would balloon with proposal

Frustrated by a dwindling Miami-Dade film industry and its effect on the economy, Commissioner René Garcia wants the county to launch a “high impact film fund program” to attract “major television series and motion picture productions.”

His resolution asking Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to create such a program and report to the commission within 90 days passed unanimously Monday in the county’s Chairmans Policy Council and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. It now heads to the full commission for action.

The current Miami-Dade film incentive program, Mr. Garcia said, “only incentivizes small to medium productions”.

Subsidies of $100,000 are available for productions spending at least $1 million and $50,000 for productions spending at least $500,000.

It’s not enough, he insists. His resolution notes that since Florida’s former film incentives program lapsed the county has projected a loss of over $800 million from what production companies would have spent on site and a loss of 100,000 jobs. He proposes to fund the new county program with money already in this year’s budget.

Competition mounts from Florida counties and southern states. In Florida, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Duval, Pinellas, and Manatee counties all offer film incentives. Meanwhile, incentives programs have launched in Georgia, Louisiana and North Carolina, Mr. Garcia noted. Georgia now has replaced Florida as the third largest film-making center in the nation.

To rub salt in the wound, movies set in Miami-Dade County are often made elsewhere in Florida or in other states.

The HBO-Max 2022 version of “Father of the Bride,” starring Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan, ostensibly set in Miami, was filmed largely in Atlanta. And the “high impact” projects Mr. Garcia envisions would be more like the $20 million 1991 Steve Martin “Father of the Bride” remake of Spencer Tracy’s 1950 original.