CARSON CITY — A proposal to expand the state’s film tax credit program to bring Hollywood studios to Southern Nevada will have its first public hearing Thursday afternoon.
Assembly Bill 238 would encourage a film studio to develop a campus of stages and ancillary production services in Las Vegas by offering transferable production tax credits to a studio that builds out that infrastructure.
On Wednesday, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery announced the two media companies will work together to build and use a 31-acre film studio campus — anchoring an expected 100-acre mixed-use area led by developer Howard Hughes Holdings, should the expanded tax credit program bill pass.
Assemblymember Sandra Jauregui, the bill’s co-sponsor, said the proposed legislation could result in nearly 18,000 jobs.
Jauregui, D-Las Vegas, and co-sponsor Daniele Monroe-Moreno are expected to describe the bill and the proposed studio lot with studio representatives during the Assembly Revenue Committee meeting at 4 p.m.
The bill calls for $105 million in production film tax credits annually, with $80 million set aside for the proposed Summerlin Studios on land south of the 215 Beltway between South Town Center Drive and South Hualapai Way. The remaining amount would come in the form of nontransferable tax credits available for filming elsewhere in the state.
Currently, credits are capped at $10 million per year at a maximum of $6 million per production.
The expanded tax credits would become available July 1, 2028, but would first require a capital investment of at least $400 million. AB 238 also would require an educational and vocational building on the site. The funding would end 15 years after the capital investment requirements are satisfied, according to the bill.
Another bill, Senate Bill 220, proposes a similar expansion of the film tax credit program to build a studio campus at UNLV’s Harry Reid Research and Technology Park in southwest Las Vegas. Sen. Roberta Lange, D-Las Vegas, told the Review-Journal last week that bill will likely have its first hearing in March.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.
