Sen. Louis P. DiPalma’s (D-Dist. 12, Middletown, Little Compton, Newport, Tiverton) legislation (2020-S 2326A) that amends the state’s motion picture tax credit program passed the Senate tonight.

The legislation amends the current program by allowing productions to utilize tax credits, even if the majority of production is not done within the state, if the production spends a minimum of $10 million within Rhode Island during a 12-month span.

“Our motion picture tax credit program has proven to be successful, but, there are changes to its structure that can be made to further strengthen the program’s benefits to Rhode Island without any additional cost.  This bill does just that, amending our program so that larger and more high-profile productions come to Rhode Island to take advantage of our unique and diverse state, which in turn, will promote Rhode Island’s natural beauty and historic structures to the entire world,” said Senator DiPalma in a news release.

According to the current program, a production must shoot the majority of its project within Rhode Island in order to qualify for the tax credit program.  This is turn has caused larger, and often times global, productions to bypass using Rhode Island as a production location.

The majority of the tax credit program will remain the same under the new bill, such as, the amount of the tax credit being 30 percent of the state-certified production costs and capping the program’s total amount at $20 million for any tax year.

The bill now heads to the House for consideration.

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