TUE AM News: GOP lawmakers want to create State Film Office, offer incentives for producing TV and movies; MMAC’s Kooyenga weighs in on potential trade deals, economic uncertainty

April 15, 2025

— Fresh off the success of a competition cooking show, GOP lawmakers are again circulating legislation to create state tax incentives for film and TV production, arguing Wisconsin is missing out on “economic benefits that most other states enjoy.”

Under the latest version of the bill, a newly created State Film Office would be able to allocate up to $10 million in film production and investment tax credits per fiscal year — double the amount that would have been provided by a previous version of the legislation.

Republican Reps. Dave Armstrong of Rice Lake, Calvin Callahan of Tomahawk, and Karen Hurd of Withee as well as Sens. Julian Bradley of New Berlin and Patrick Testin of Stevens Point, recently circulated a co-sponsorship memo seeking to rally support for the proposal.

As with the earlier bill, the memo notes Wisconsin is one of just five states with no film office or commission and one of 10 with no production incentives.

“State tax incentives are a lucrative strategy that allows Wisconsin to benefit from increased economic activity,” authors wrote. “Incentives attract filmmakers and their projects, which contribute to local businesses, job creation, and tourism — boosting the overall economy. Under LRB 2456/2810, no money leaves state coffers until the production’s expenses are spent and justified.”

Along with establishing a State Film Office under the state Department of Tourism, the bill would create tax incentives for film production companies equal to 30% of eligible salaries or wages paid as part of producing a film, video, broadcast advertisement or TV program, with various limits such as the production needing to exceed $1 million in budgeted expenditures.

The legislation would also establish similar income and franchise tax credits of 30% for production expenditures and 30% of certain property purchases, remodels or repairs within the company’s first three taxable years doing business in Wisconsin.

Compared to the earlier version, the total dollar amount available for tax credits and the percentages used in calculating those credits are larger based on a comparison to last year’s memo.

New in this year’s legislative effort, the lawmakers reference the success of Season 21 of the TV show “Top Chef,” which spent about $5 million filming in Wisconsin after being offered $400,000 in state incentives through a Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. deal. The memo also notes Milwaukee had a $1.5 million bump in hotel room bookings from “Top Chef” viewers over a six-month period.

“A Christmas film project currently wrapping production in Door County has spent more than $600K over three weeks in Wisconsin,” authors wrote. “Now imagine the benefits to the state and local economies if Wisconsin had a state film office dedicated to attracting productions, instead of the current ad hoc approach.”

The effort is being applauded by Action! Wisconsin, a coalition of film industry advocates that want to see a dedicated State Film Office created. In a release, the group notes the bill will be introduced and referred to committee after April 22, which is the co-sponsorship deadline.

JoAnn Jardine, a photographer in Superior and coalition member, says “everyone benefits” when a film or TV production comes to town.

“Film and television productions book lodging, cater shoots, dine out, and use local transportation,” she said. “They also shop and hire locally and statewide in the trades and crafts.”

The group notes movie filming on location adds $670,000 per day to the local economy, while “big budget” productions have a $1.3 million daily local economic impact, based on figures from the Motion Picture Association.

See the memo and release from Action! Wisconsin.

— Dale Kooyenga, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, says Wisconsin business owners want to see President Donald Trump negotiate trade deals immediately as widespread uncertainty is still a critical concern.

“The businesses want to see D.C. negotiate and deal with this but with a businessman’s scalpel, not a populist sledgehammer,” Kooyenga told WISN 12’s “UpFront,” which is produced in partnership with WisPolitics. “So the hope is that in these 90 days, they really negotiate getting better deals. The hope is that Donald Trump doesn’t believe that tariffs are actually a national strategy to prosperity. Business leaders I spoke to don’t agree with that. Mainstream economists don’t agree with this, but if this is a negotiation tactic to get net free trade, that’s good.”

The current 145% tariffs on China, Kooyenga said, could eventually benefit some Wisconsin manufacturers, but likely not immediately.

“Not in the short-term, but long-term, yes,” Kooyenga said. “There’s no doubt about it: China’s stolen intellectual property that’s manipulated their currency. It’s a mixed bag. A lot of Wisconsin businesses actually have plants in China, do business in China. Longer term, it may be good for Wisconsin manufacturers. In the short term, there’s no way around that it’s going to create more uncertainty and more cost.”

See more from the show.

— UW-Stout is touting a recent high ranking for game design programs from the Princeton Review, which put the university at No. 5 in the Midwest.

The university’s programs were also ranked No. 24 of the top 50 international schools, five spots higher than last year. And UW-Stout’s design-focused master’s in fine arts was ranked No. 4 in the Midwest and No. 21 internationally, with game design being one of its eight specialties.

Erik Evensen, program director for the MFA in design, says the ranking “shows strength of our students’ interdisciplinary research” into game design and other digital media areas.

“Pursuing game design at the graduate level is interdisciplinary, interactive, and highly creative, and students continually find new ways to explore creative projects, solve problems and develop new ideas,” Evensen said in a statement.

See more in the release.

— Nineteen small business organizations in the state are getting $3.2 million in state grant funding, Gov. Tony Evers and WEDC announced.

In a release yesterday, state officials rolled out details for the latest round of Small Business Development Grant funding, which ranges from $50,000 to $250,000 per recipient. These included local and regional economic groups, as well as counties and municipalities, which pass all of the funding on to small businesses.

“Now more than ever, it is critical that we do all we can to support the success of our state’s small businesses across our state,” Evers said in a statement.

Grant funding is going toward revolving loan funds for building upgrades, youth entrepreneurship programs, advertising services, other technical support and more.

See the release.

— Abingdon Health USA recently opened a new laboratory and office in Madison as it seeks to meet “growing demand” in the U.S. for its diagnostics services.

The subsidiary of U.K.-based Abingdon Health held a ribboncutting event for the new space, located in University Research Park’s MGE Innovation Center.

Chief Commercial Officer Chris Yates says the move will help the company be closer to its U.S. customers as “an increasing share” of its global business is coming from the United States.

Yates, who’s also president of the subsidiary business, said picking Madison for its U.S. headquarters was an easy choice. He touted the region’s “globally renowned biohealth industry” anchored by leading health care businesses, UW-Madison’s expertise in research and entrepreneurship, supportive business ecosystem and skilled workforce.

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway says the company’s work in the diagnostics space could help improve accessibility to affordable, high-quality health care.

“We look forward to supporting their growth and success as they become part of our rapidly expanding ecosystem for biohealth and precision medicine,” she said in a statement.

Abingdon Health, which is headquartered in York, England, has contract development manufacturing operations there and now in Madison. The company provides services to customers across clinical point of care, pharmaceuticals, food and other industries.

See more in the release.

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