The $15 million dollar incentives debate may almost be over.
The producers of the Netflix series had threatened to move production of the third season elsewhere if they were not given another $15 million dollars in benefits.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the House of Cards will continue production in Maryland after the state’s House of Delegates approved legislation last Monday. The legislation boosts funding for movie and TV tax incentives to $18.5 million from the previous $7.5 million. This raises the cap any one show can receive to up to $15 million.
The Senate must still reconfirm (however, on March 17 it supported a similar version of the bill by a vote of 45 to 1, with one abstention), and Governor Martin O’Malley must sign, but both are expected to happen. Due to term limits the governor is about to leave office.
The producers of the Netflix series starring Kevin Spacey (who is also a producer on the show), Media Rights Capital, set off a controversy in February when they sent a letter to O’Malley seeking $15 million for the coming third season of the show, after the first two seasons were shot in Maryland.
The show received $26 million in financial incentives during the first two seasons but the state was on the verge of reducing the amount available. The legislature is now boosting that amount again, in part by moving $2.5 million that was to go to the arts, to the film program [THR].
The executive producer for ‘House of Cards’ wrote a letter to the governor and the speaker of the House, threatening to tear down sets in Baltimore and film elsewhere. The show used the House chamber in Annapolis as a set, as well as several spaces in the Baltimore Sun building.
Production was halted until June, in order to see if the state could come up with additional funding.
If ‘House of Cards’ did leave Maryland, where would you like for it to film? Share us your story below in the comments!
