Walker Signs Bill Repealing Film Tax Credits

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Alaska’s film tax credit program has gone from comatose to dead.

Gov. Bill Walker signed a bill ending the subsidies on Monday. The program was created in 2008, and it’s paid out about $50 million in credits to television shows, movies, and documentaries film in the state.

The program was already scheduled to sunset in 2018, but Walker repealed the program because he does not expect oil prices and state revenue to bounce back by then. In a statement, Walker said he supported the film industry, but the credits were not justifiable when the state is in deficit-spending mode.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Bill Stoltze, a Chugiak Republican.

Supporters of the program argued that it brought jobs and economic activity to communities used as filming locations. The program has granted credits to television shows like Deadliest Catch and Sarah Palin’s Alaska and to movies like Frozen Ground.