No tax breaks for pornographic movies

Published 12:00 am Thursday, June 4, 2009

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Makers of pornographic movies should not be eligible for Louisiana’s economic incentive system for the film industry, the Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday.

Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, said no porn producers have so far taken advantage of the incentive program, but he wants to make sure none do. The measure would make ineligible any movie company whose work falls under a federal law requiring certain record-keeping for depiction of ‘‘actual sexually explicit conduct.’’

For makers of ‘‘family friendly films,’’ Crowe wants to sweeten the existing tax credit system. For makers of G-rated movies, his bill would raise from 25 percent to 27 percent the tax credit now available for film production investments greater than $300,000.

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Senators agreed with a unanimous vote, sending the bill to the House.

The Legislative Fiscal Office said Crowe’s bill would have a minimal effect on the state’s revenue.

The fiscal office had not yet finished studying the potential revenue effects of a movie tax credit bill by Sen. Robert Adley that was originally estimated to cost the state $200 million over the next five years.