Rapper Ice T is expected
to testify before the New York City Council today (Dec. 1) to support a tax credit
on TV and movie production
expenses.
Along with Director
Spike Lee and Tribeca Film Festival Founder Jane Rosenthal, Ice T will lobby
a bill proposed by New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg and the City Council at a council hearing.
The bill advocates
a five percent tax credit on what are known as "below-the-line" TV
and movie production expenses, consisting of
payments to technical workers, stagehands and extras.
"Were losing
a lot of business to Canada and to California," Councilman
David Weprin (D-Queens Village), chairman of the councils
Finance Committee, told New York Newsday. "And this will help
us be more competitive."
Though film production
in New York City plummeted after the 2001 terrorist attacks – from 23,000 film
days in 1998 to around 19,000 in
2003-it has recently recovered, according to the Mayor Bloomberg’s
film office.
The bill must first
be approved by Albany officials, though Weprin said he hopes the Legislature
will pass the measure in January. Afterwards,
the bill could conceivably become a law.
