True" Music in the last 18 months, the film industry boosted Montana's economy to the tune of 47 million dollars. Looking ahead, the Yellowstone Film Ranch near Livingston is geared up to host a projected three to four major motion pictures. Much of this activity can be attributed to the media act passed in 2019. The media act offers tax credits to movie and film productions shot here in Montana. And it's not just Hollywood who benefits. I'm Claire Matten with Sterling CRE Advisors. While facilitating the lease with the popular TV show Yellowstone, we wondered, Montana's media act, how does it work? One Montana native working at the Yellowstone Film Ranch says that hidden behind every actor and producer are hundreds of jobs. A common misunderstanding about the media act is that Montana simply writes a check to qualified productions to get them to move to the state. But like write-offs and other tax mechanisms, it's a little more complicated than that. Like any for-profit business, TV and film productions pay taxes. And like most businesses, these productions use available credits and deductions to reduce their tax liability at the end of the year. That's where the media act comes into play. Similar to using the child tax credit to save money on your personal taxes, a tax credit through the media act allows the production to shave dollars off their tax bill. Now, we're not the first state to do this. Georgia, Utah, and Colorado have netted millions, not just in production expenses, but in film tourism stemming from popular movies and TV shows. New Mexico has a similar, but much larger program, generating 525 million dollars of direct spend in the state in 2019. In states like New Mexico and Montana with incentive programs, producers aren't paying as much in...
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