The Ritter administration Tuesday unveiled three bills designed to provide a lift to creative enterprises in the state.
Creative firms, which range from design boutiques to video producers and from the performing arts to literary publishers, represent the fifth-largest and one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in the state, said Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien.
“Colorado has a very strong creative economy,” said O’Brien, who along with Gov. Bill Ritter addressed a gathering in Denver’s River North Art District.
But economic-development incentives directed at the sector haven’t proved as effective as desired, something the new legislation is designed to address.
For example, the state last year allocated $300,000 for its film-incentive fund, which provides a 10 percent rebate on nonpayroll costs for film and video production done in the state.
None of those funds was awarded, in part because producers must spend 75 percent of the project’s nonpayroll budget in Colorado.
The proposed bill would modify that threshold and would also make it easier for commercial and video-game producers, who are active in Colorado, to access incentive funds.
Arthur Thomas, executive vice president with Colours TV, a network that distributes multicultural programming, said producers he talks to in New York and Los Angeles often resist working in Colorado, in part because incentives are more attractive elsewhere.
“Our idea is to have production done here,” he said.
Another proposal would broaden the Arts in Public Places statute that requires state-funded construction proj ects to set aside 1 percent for public arts projects.
The bill would add certificates of participation, a newer instrument for municipal financing, to the program, which isn’t seeing a lot of activity because of the economic downturn.
A third bill would merge the Colorado Council on the Arts, Art in Public Places and the Office of Film within the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
Although the budgets or head counts won’t change for those programs, they should be more effective acting together than apart.
State officials couldn’t provide an estimate of how many jobs the new measures, if they pass, might provide.
Nearly 8,000 creative firms directly employed 122,287 people at the end of 2007, with another 63,964 creative workers employed in other sectors, according to the Colorado Council on the Arts.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
