Santa Fe Roundhouse March 15, 2019 4 am - After hundreds of man-hours spent by your 492 Business Agents Melissa Malcolm, Trey White and Tracy McCarty, who have been lobbying Representatives and Senators in the roundhouse over the last 3 weeks, House Bill 85 passed this week and Senate Bill 2 has passed 41-24 at 3 am this morning!
SB2: The passage of SB2 will reduce the current 6 year bottleneck of rebate repayment by paying off $225 million of the current film debt over the next two years and raising the annual cap from $50 million to $110 million. This will most definitely encourage more productions to film in NM.
The new law also adds a new incentive by completely lifting the annual cap for companies who lease or buy film studios in New Mexico and also commit to filming in New Mexico for 10 years. This will encourage much needed new film infrastructure be added to the New Mexico landscape. The new law also adds a 5% incentive for filming in rural areas 60 miles outside of Santa Fe/Albuquerque area. There is a real possibility that a Las Cruces, Roswell or Farmington film facility could exist in the near future.
The passage of SB2 is going to ensure that New Mexico is a huge player in the film industry for years to come. It's going to create great new jobs for New Mexicans and give our current Teamsters more job security.
Teamsters Local 492 would like to thank Representative Antonio "Moe" Maestas, Senator Nancy Rodriguez, Little West and Jon Lipshutz from the AFL-CIO for working so hard to pass a film bill that may double the film industry in NM over the next few years!!!
HB85: House Bill 85 will prevent counties from passing anti-union bills that prevent exclusive bargaining agreements. In other words, counties will not be allowed to pass or enact RTW laws. This is a great win for unions in New Mexico.
Both bills now move to the governor’s desk to hopefully be signed.
