Xavier Becerra, the leading Democrat in the race for California governor, called on Friday for a summit of studio, labor and tech leaders to address the sharp drop in Hollywood jobs.
Becerra becomes the latest candidate to offer a proposal to revive the entertainment industry, which has lost 51,000 production jobs in the last three years. He promised to expand the state’s incentive for film and TV production, but unlike some other candidates, he did not pledge to eliminate the $750 million cap.
“Where demand is real, where jobs follow, and where the return to California justifies it, I intend to increase the program’s scale, capacity and access,” Becerra said.
Becerra’s chief Democratic rival, billionaire Tom Steyer, first called for an expansion of the state’s tax incentive in March. Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa upped the ante in April, saying they would make the program unlimited.
The leading Republican, Steve Hilton, likewise called for eliminating the cap on the program and expanding eligible expenses to include salaries for actors and producers. All three of the top candidates for Los Angeles mayor have since called for eliminating the cap as well.
The first item in Becerra’s policy statement is a call for a California Entertainment Summit, including producers, studios, labor and tech leaders, who would develop a “public action plan” for Hollywood. Becerra also emphasizes the need for a federal tax incentive for production jobs in order to compete with subsidies in Canada, the U.K., and elsewhere.
“Our workers should not fight alone against foreign government treasuries,” the proposal states. “California will lead the push for federal support, because the government must show up for its workers at every level.”
Becerra’s proposal includes several elements that are friendly to Hollywood labor, including a pledge to provide compensation for AI training — a key unmet demand from industry unions — and state-mandated disclosure of streaming viewership data, which was a major theme of the 2023 actors’ and writers’ strikes.
The largest union representing Hollywood workers, IATSE, has joined with other labor groups in endorsing Steyer, who has run a more strident anti-corporate campaign. Steyer has been especially outspoken in his opposition to the Paramount and Warner Bros. merger, warning that it will cost thousands of jobs.
An adviser to Becerra’s campaign, Michael Bustamante, said in April that Becerra would likely support an increase in the state’s production incentive, but would be wary of making the program unlimited, which could easily run into the billions of dollars.
“The problem is we’ve got budget issues overall,” Bustamante said at the time. “We have to be smart about it.”
