Disney movie crew shooting "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" in Tucker
ATLANTA - A Disney crew was filming a soccer scene for "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" at DeKalb County's Henderson Park on Monday.
They've been shooting scenes for the movie all over Metro Atlanta since January.
It's just one of hundreds of film and TV projects that have made Georgia the fifth most popular location in the country.
In addition to the state's weather, local film companies and plenty of non-union labor, their main incentive is a state tax credit.
"I have personally been involved with several projects here on both features and television that would not be here without these incentives," says Georgia producer Tom Luse.
Since Georgia passed the latest tax credit in 2008, the state has hosted more than 100 movie and TV shoots, seen 30 new or expanded local production-related companies and added more than 2,000 jobs for a total of 25,000 industry jobs.
Last year the industry added $1.4 billion to the state's economy, up more than 400% from 3 years ago.
But overshadowing those gains is a proposal to eliminate the tax credits.
After more than 6 months of study, a special tax reform commission recommended that the State Legislature do away with that and several other credits and exemptions, as well as bring back the state sales tax on food and several other consumer items.
As a tradeoff, they recommend lowering the state income tax.
The long term objective is to tax more of what we spend than what we earn.
But those suggestions have met with howls of protests from several special interest groups, including the film industry.
"When you want to be successful in business, the first thing you have to do is to have a product that somebody wants," Governor Nathan Deal told scores of movie makers and county representatives at the State Capitol on Monday.
He was helping to promote "Camera Ready" Georgia locations, which now include 73 of our 159 counties, compared to only 16 a year ago.
After the ceremony, the Governor told 11 Alive News he favors keeping the movie and TV exemptions.
"I think we should keep the tax credits and obviously, as I said, I don't have a problem examining them to see if there's a better way of doing it," he added.
In other words, is the industry earning its exemptions?
A new study by the Georgia Department of Economic Development claims it is.
It says from 2005 to 2010, the film and TV business saved $330,998 in state tax credits, while paying out $412,422 in local taxes.
That means they've given back $1.24 for every $1 they got in breaks.
With only 9 days left in this year's State Legislative session, leading lawmakers say a bill to implement some of the special tax reform commission suggestions looks like it probably won't pass this year.
Many say the overhaul is far too complicated to tackle without more study.
Even though Governor Deal has now thrown his support behind the film industry's tax credits, the fact that the bill may still be considered in the future has many in the movie business worried that just talk of of killing the exemption may have already scared off some future productions.