How A Film Incentive Bill Cruised A Senate Committee Vote

Every bill has a story.

The story of Senate Bill 22 is about a lunch between Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Taylor Sheridan.

In a meeting last year, according to multiple Capitol sources, the prolific director and producer of television shows like Landman and Yellowstone asked Patrick for more incentive money and a reduction in the residency requirements to qualify for incentives. It became one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s top priorities and is set for a full vote as soon as next week. 

The bill, which passed unanimously out of the Senate Finance Committee on Monday, would establish a $500 million fund to attract more multimedia production to the state.

Authored by Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston), the bill would expand the current Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program by creating the Texas Moving Image Incentive Fund, allocating $500 million per budget cycle to lure more movies, television shows and other multimedia productions to the state. 

Since its establishment in 2007 the TMIIP has had an estimated $3.2 billion economic impact on the state, and as of last year, every grant dollar awarded returns $4.69 to the state. But advocates for incentives say the TMIIP budget is subject to the whims of the economy and moods of appropriators who could increase or decrease the budget.

For instance: in the 2013 session, when faced with a budget deficit, the program received a total of $32 million. A decade later, funding increased to a whopping $200 million thanks to a historic budget surplus. 

Consistency is conservative, and conservative means good for business to the Republican-controlled chamber. But without consistent funding, proponents argue Texas is losing to other states with more robust incentive programs like Georgia and New Mexico. So, to them, a dedicated $500 million until 2031 should solve the problem. But there are still plenty of problems, advocates say. 

While the $200 million boost incentivized more projects, the residency requirement was reduced from 70 to 55 percent. The bill as written reduces it to 35 percent, then increases it by 5 percent each biennium through 2031. Even then, the threshold is only 50 percent.

While the goal of the incentives is to bring more money to Texas, Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo), was surprised that the return on investment is not higher.

“Do you think that since we are investing or we plan to invest more money in this program this session, that the return on investment will be even higher than $4.69?” she asked Adriana Cruz, head of Texas Economic Development and Tourism in the Governor’s office. 

“If you look at the 1883 example, because the residency requirements have gone down, that means the number of Texans on the payroll is also less. And we're not able to provide an estimate on what that looks like or will look like under the bill yet,” she replied. 

That led one insider to question if lowering the threshold is worth it. 

 “It is so disappointing that the bill lowers the Texas crew hiring requirement, especially after the legislature already lowered it last session all because Taylor Sheridan wants to bring his out-of-state workers into Texas instead of hiring mostly Texas crews,” the source quipped. 

The concern is valid. The TMIIP was created to sell to conservatives by emphasizing that productions would employ Texans, spend a certain amount in Texas, and represent Texas. Pornography, political advertisements, religious services, casino-type video games and, loosely, media including “inappropriate content or content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion” would not qualify for incentives.

Yet those restrictions were not enough for some senators. “I think there's no value at all using God's name in vain in movies or anywhere else. But while I see listed specific projects not eligible, I don't find that profanity is limited in any way,” asked Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels). 

No, replied Cruz. Restrictions focus on visual content. 

“Well, I would just say we're still in the Bible Belt and there's just no value [in taking God’s name in vain,” Campbell said.

Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) agreed with Campbell that expletives should be considered when considering incentives. He cited Taylor’s Landman starring Billy Bob Thornton. “Having Billy Bob Thornton use the f-bomb in every other sentence is not in my mind representing Texas values. It's completely wrong. It's not functionally correct. It doesn't explain what a landman does,” he said. “We've got to have a standard that sets the tone for the state of Texas and what we would support and not support.”

Before the cursing in Landman, however, conservatives had their eyes on another production.

In 2010, Robert Rodriguez was one of Texas’s most well-known directors and dedicated to producing as much as he could in his home state. He loved Texas and employing Texans in movies such as Spy Kids and Grindhouse at his Troublemaker Studios in Austin. When Gov. Rick Perry signed the law creating film incentives, he signed it at Troublemaker.

Conservative legislators, however, didn’t see his movie Machete as an expression of love. Machete is a slasher about Machete Cortez, a Mexican hitman hired to kill a Texas state senator who is hurting business by deporting undocumented immigrants. When Cortez is betrayed by his client, he goes on a revenge spree across the state.

The movie was denounced by bankrupt conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for “inciting a race war,” with right wing outlets piling on.

While Rodriguez was ultimately denied incentives and lost a battle in court on free speech grounds, Bettencourt and others have trashed Machete as a negative portrayal of Texas and its values. Rodriguez repeatedly said the movie was not politically motivated.

In 2023, as lawmakers debated several bills about incentives, Troublemaker Studios manager Nixon Guerrero cautioned against dramatically lowering the threshold. “Our Texas brothers and sisters should get first priority. Their phones should ring first,” he said. 

One notable Texan who has taken the mantle of increased incentives is Matthew McConaughey. At the hearing, he was joined by his fellow True Detective castmate Woody Harrelson to help sell the bill.

“Look, if we pass this bill in Texas, we are immediately at the bargaining table for shooting more films and television and commercials in our state immediately. Also, more Texans who left Texas and went to other incentivized states for work because there wasn’t enough work here are going to move back,” McConaughey said.

And in the conservative tradition, he suggested that within ten years, when the fund is up for renewal. “There’s going to be a point where we are not going to need financial incentives from the state because the infrastructure will be in place, and that will be a major game changer,” he said. 

What’s uncertain is if every Texan will get a fair shot at representing Texas values.