(Liam Hibbert) – The Nevada Assembly Revenue committee held a hearing Thursday on a $1.5 billion tax credits bill to lure Hollywood to the state.
The proposed investment would be a look decades down the line for Nevadans with support from Warner Bros. and Sony. Supporters of the film industry bill promised $3 billion in revenue and thousands of new jobs, while opponents argued that the state had bigger things to worry about.
“ I’ve been 44 years as a union ironworker… This thing here is eight years of work,” said Freddy Visnicki, a U.S. Veteran and Southern Nevada Building Trades union member about the bill to the committee. “It’s going to give opportunity not only to U.S. union members, but to our 8-year-olds and 9-year-olds and their future here in Las Vegas.
The Nevada Studio Infrastructure Jobs and Workforce Training Act, or Assembly Bill 238, faces competition from a strikingly similar bill, Senate Bill 220, proposed by Sen. Roberta Lange D-Clark County. Past that, the bill, proposed by Assembly members Sandra Jauregui and Daniele Monroe-Moreno, also both Clark County Democrats, faces likely opposition from Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who opposed a similar proposal in 2023. Las Vegas, a popular filming location, is in Clark County.
“At its core, AB 238 is about investing in Nevada’s future, creating opportunities for hardworking Nevadans, growing and diversifying our economy, and establishing a long-term sustainable industry that will benefit our community for decades.” Jauregui told the committee “More than a billion and a half dollars will be invested and thousands of construction jobs created before a single dollar is earned in tax credit.”
The bill would supply more than $1.5 billion in tax credits over 15 years. Part of the plan would be to create a major movie production studio in Summerlin, a Las Vegas Valley community. The three big companies involved in the plan are Sony, Warner Bros. and real estate company Howard Hughes.
