‘Veep’, ‘This Is Us’, ‘Rosewood’ & ‘American Crime’ Among 11 TV Projects Awarded California Tax Credits

The third season of American Crime, Season 2 of Rosewood, Season 6 of Veep, newbies This Is Us and Pitch are today among the latest television recipients of California’s lucrative tax credits. With the John Ridley-created series relocating from Austin, Texas and getting over $5.2 million, the series were part of the 11 projects that the California Film Commission announced Monday (see full list below) will be receiving part of the $65 million available this round to newly relocating TV series, recurring TV series and 1^st season TV series picked up from pilots that had secured tax credits. Both Pitch and This is Us garnered tax credits for their pilots. Among the conditionally approved projects, Fox’s Rosewood was the largest recipient with over $11.3 million in tax credits. Having relocated to California last year, HBO’s Veep got $6.5 million for its upcoming sixth season.

The 11 approved TV projects will generate around $464 million in direct in-state spending, including $171 million in wages to below-the-line crew members, according to the CFC.

The latest application period ran from May 17-27, with only shows with series pick-ups eligible. The next round of tax credits will come at the end of this month with the window of June 27 to July 8 for feature films to apply for approximately $79 million in incentives. With more TV series, mini-series, MOWs, pilots and relocating series in the mix, the next TV round is from November 14- 29.

Since the expanded and employment-centric tax credits program came into effect in 2015, relocating series has been a priority for the Golden State and the CFC with the likes of Veep, Mistresses, American Horror Story and Screen Queens moving to Cali. Snagging $9.2 million in credits the latter renewed Fox series from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck was the big catch among the last round of TV incentive allotments back in early March this year.

At the same time, California lost Supergirl this year as the Greg Berlanti EP’d series moved from CBS to the CW for its second season and up to Vancouver where fellow WBTV shows Arrow, The Flash and DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow film.

Once capped at $100 million a year when it was first introduced in 2009, Gov. Jerry Brown greatly expanded the incentive when he signed the now-five-year, $330 million-a-year tax credit program into law in September 2014. Since then, California has clawed back some of the production that was once flooding out of the home of Hollywood to more lucrative states like NY, Georgia and Louisiana and Canadian provinces. Coming off its most successful year ever and with the Canadian dollar competitively low next to the U.S. currency, British Columbia took the unexpected move last year to bring its subsidies down from 33% to 28% starting on October 1.