The Writers Guild of America strike is bringing television and film production across America to a halt, including here in New Orleans. While that could hurt tax revenues for the state in the short term, a bill currently in the legislature could help the state rebound from the strike in the long term.
UNO economics professor Janet Speyrer says the size of the state's film industry could stunt its growth following the strike.
"It may impact us in the longterm by not making Louisiana a viable place to do film business because we are smaller," Dr. Speyrer said.
However, Dr. Speyrer notes that if lawmakers pass the bill extending the state's film tax credit through 2035, film and TV producers will have a major incentive to come back to Hollywood South.
"If the tax credit does go through, it could help us gather business from some of the other places that are not as robust as we are in coming back," Dr. Speyrer said. "We know that there has been some controversy about the credit, and I think at this time it's probably more important than at other times that we have the credit to get back the business as soon as possible."
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