From Las Vegas Sun
Film tax credits legislation passes Senate committee
By Grace Da Rocha (contact)
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 | 2 a.m.
Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.
Lawmakers have advanced a plan to create a $900 million film studio complex through state-approved tax credits over a 15-year period.
Senate Bill 220 — the Nevada Film Infrastructure, Workforce Development, Education and Economic Diversification Act — would provide up to $98 million annually in film tax credits to create a 34-acre Nevada Studios complex at UNLV’s Harry Reid Research and Technology Park in southwest Las Vegas.
Sen. Roberta Lange, D-Las Vegas, who introduced the proposal, envisions Nevada becoming an entertainment powerhouse while fueling economic growth. The project would create academic pathways and career opportunities for locals seeking to enter the film industry.
Lange said the project would generate over 10,000 new jobs, $750 million in wages and economic impacts projected to reach “tens of billions” of dollars. The Senate Committee on Revenue and Economic Development advanced the bill after a hearing Thursday.
“What matters even more are the Nevadans who will benefit – students getting hands-on experience, technicians and engineers staying in Nevada instead of leaving, families building careers in industries they once thought were out of reach,” Lange said. “With Senate Bill 220, we are creating a living engine for opportunity, training Nevada’s workforce, hosting today’s industry leaders and fueling discoveries that will define Nevada’s place in the national innovation economy.”
Birtcher Nevada Development would develop Nevada Studios in partnership with the UNLV Research Foundation through a 100-year ground lease. The MBS Group, the world’s largest studio consulting and equipment company, will operate the facility.
More than 5,000 Nevadans are ready to work in film and production, according to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the union representing stagehands and production workers. This number doesn’t include students receiving training at local institutions like the College of Southern Nevada.
Brooke Birtcher Gustafson, president of Birtcher Nevada Development, told the committee Thursday that for every $1 the state invested in film tax credits would represent “economy building initiatives.”
The proposal revises a 2023 bill led by Lange that would have increased Nevada’s annual film tax credit cap to $190 million annually for 25 years. That bill stalled in committee.
The new version would divert 20% of film tax credits in the first three years and 10% each year afterward into the Nevada Media and Technology Fund. This fund would support the creation of a 50,000-square-foot Nevada Media and Technology Lab next to the studio complex, providing workforce development, education and economic diversification.
“Over the last five years, Sen. Lange has played a critical role in ensuring that education and workforce development opportunities remain at the heart of SB 220 and in the overall design of our Nevada Studios Project,” Birtcher Gustafson said. “Here are three critical elements I want you to remember about SB 220 today. One: it is a workforce ready bill; two: it provides an actionable and realistic plan for economy building; and three: it ensures that public funds will be used on public lands to provide a generational opportunity to reshape Nevada’s economic future.”
Lange’s bill is the second this legislative session aimed at building a film industry in the state. In February, Assemblymembers Sandra Jauregui, D-Las Vegas, and co-sponsor Daniele Monroe-Moreno, D-North Las Vegas, introduced AB 238, called the Nevada Studio Infrastructure Jobs and Workforce Training Act, or Summerlin Studios.
AB 238 revives a bill from the 2023 legislative session that would grant up to $120 million in transferable tax credits per year for 15 years to studios that help create film industry infrastructure.
Warner Bros. Discovery Studios announced in February that it would partner with Sony Entertainment Pictures and Howard Hughes Corp. to develop Summerlin Studios. Warner Bros. Discovery Studios had planned to partner with UNLV in a studio venture last fall, but those plans were abandoned.
The Summerlin Studios project, planned for 31 acres near Town Center Drive and Flamingo Road, anchors this proposal. Once completed, Summerlin Studios would create an estimated 17,680 jobs and provide Nevada a $3 billion economic boost, according to an economic analysis from PFM Group Consulting.
The Assembly Committee on Revenue advanced AB 238 without recommendation at its April 3 meeting.
“At its core, AB 238 is about investing in Nevada’s future, creating opportunities for hardworking Nevadans, growing and diversifying our economy and establishing a long-term sustainable industry that will benefit our communities for decades,” Jauregui said. “AB 238 is a game changer for Nevada. It is a bold step toward economic diversification, job creation and industry growth.”