By Sean P. Means, The Movie Cricket, Salt Lake Tribune

Utah raises its motion-picture tax incentive

Hollywood now has more incentive to film in Utah.

On Monday, as reported by the Tribune's Robert Gehrke, Gov. Gary Herbert signed into law HB99, which bumps Utah's motion-picture incentive from a 20 percent tax rebate to 25 percent.

That puts Utah even with the incentive offered by New Mexico, which in recent years has been Utah's toughest competition in landing Hollywood productions that require red rock or desert landscapes.

Two movies, the Coen brothers' "True Grit" and this summer's "Cowboys & Aliens," chose New Mexico for its locations after briefly considering Utah.

Utah has brought in its share of movies under the 20 percent incentive, including "127 Hours" (pictured) and the 2012 sci-fi movie "John Carter of Mars."

HB99 also makes two changes to the motion-picture incentive that should make the program more visible.

One removes the program's sunset provision, which makes the incentive more attractive to TV production. TV studios were wary of taking advantage of Utah's tax break, because they weren't sure the program would still be there if the TV series was renewed for another season.

The other change is a provision requiring film productions that use the incentive to put the Utah Film Commission's logo prominently in the closing credits. Other states do this all the time (Georgia's peach logo is a common sight for dedicated credit readers), and it provides a free ad for the state.