Orange County considers reviving film incentives to boost local economy

Push to bring film incentives to Orange County

There is a push to bring back film incentives in Orange County. The state ended a similar program years ago and local leaders said they believe the region could be missing out on billions in revenue.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Orange County is exploring reinstating film incentives to attract movie productions back to the area.

Florida ended its statewide film incentive program in 2016, leading several production companies to relocate operations to Georgia.

Local leaders argue that Florida could lose more than a billion dollars in revenue by not offering a film incentive. A newly formed group met for the first time today to evaluate opportunities for bringing film production back to Orange County.

"Florida used to be the number three destination in America for production. It isn’t now because a lot of economic incentives from other states are just doing a much better job than Florida is right now," explained John Lux, Executive Director of Film Florida. "Too often people assume that with nice weather and nice locations that are good enough, but this is a business, and businesses go where they get the best return on investment, and right now Florida is not that, and that is what we are trying to change."

The next public meeting for the Orange County Film Incentive Workgroup is scheduled for Wednesday, September 11.