Montana Film Office Urges Legislature to Renew Tax Break For Filmmakers

On December 31, the Big Sky on the Big Screen act expired, taking with it a tax break for filmmakers that shoot in Montana. Montana Film Office Bureau Chief Deny Staggs hopes the tax break will be reinstated by the 2015 legislature and says it has been an economic boon for the state.

"130 productions per-certified and 48 actually went through the whole process and were certified," Staggs said. "Those 48 productions spent $8.6 million in the state and in total, the state only had to return 702,000 so we're at a 10:1 ratio there."

Staggs claims that nearly a fourth of the eight point six million dollars spent in the state went directly to Montanans employed by the film industry.

"At an average of $35 an hour, that's 62,000 hours employed where they employed Montanans—resident Montanans," Staggs said. "We know they employed a lot of services, stayed in hotels, bought gifts for their families...We love the fact that they are spending money in the state."

The new Big Sky on the Big Screen Act is now called House Bill 120 and will be discussed next week. Staggs said there are only eight states that don’t offer tax breaks for the film industry and that if Montana doesn’t compete, it won’t get the publicity or the money films can bring.