SB 22 seeks to revise and expand the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program (TMIIP) within the Texas Government Code. The bill’s primary purpose is to bolster the state’s capacity to attract film, television, and multimedia projects through financial incentives while establishing more explicit content-based standards for grant eligibility. It creates a dedicated Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund, held outside the state treasury and managed by the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company. This fund can receive appropriations, gifts, donations, and other revenues and may be used without further legislative appropriation to issue grants or cover management expenses.
The bill significantly enhances the discretionary powers of the Texas Music, Film, Television, and Multimedia Office in the Governor’s Office. It allows the office to deny or rescind grants based on content that it determines to be inappropriate or that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative light, referencing undefined “general standards of decency.” It also mandates content review during both the preliminary application stage and after project completion to verify compliance before grant payment.
Additionally, SB 22 expands the list of ineligible projects to include news and political programming, religious services, educational content not for commercial use, certain software and video game categories, state-funded advertisements, and more. The office is explicitly given broad authority to designate further ineligible projects, to refrain from acting on an application, or to rescind previously approved funding at any stage. The bill marks a substantial shift in how Texas regulates and supports its film incentive program, combining new funding mechanisms with heightened administrative oversight and content regulation.
The Committee Substitute for SB 22 makes substantial revisions to the originally filed version of the bill, significantly altering how the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program is administered. A key change is the expanded discretionary authority granted to the Music, Film, Television, and Multimedia Office. While the original bill permitted the office to review content for decency and appropriateness, the substitute version goes further, explicitly empowering the office to deny or rescind grants based on subjective standards, such as content portraying Texas or Texans negatively. This expansion of discretionary power introduces new concerns about viewpoint discrimination and the chilling of creative expression.
Another major departure is the approach to workforce requirements. The originally filed bill proposed reducing the required percentage of Texas residents on production crews from 55% to as low as 35% over time. In contrast, the Committee Substitute increases the required percentage over time—starting at 35% and gradually increasing to 50% by 2031—before reverting to the original 55% threshold in 2035. This reflects a policy shift toward reinforcing local employment in the Texas film industry rather than relaxing in-state labor expectations.
The substitute bill also adds several new categories of grant incentives not found in the original version, including bonus grants for projects designated as promoting “Texas heritage,” those filmed in rural areas, and those with qualifying postproduction expenditures. These additions diversify the types of productions eligible for supplemental funding and reflect an intent to guide economic activity toward specific regions and cultural objectives. Furthermore, the substitute imposes a 2035 sunset provision for many of the expanded provisions, including the creation of the new incentive fund and dedicated tax allocations. These sunset provisions ensure the program will revert to a more limited version unless the legislature renews the enhancements.
In total, the substitute bill represents a shift toward a more culturally and economically targeted film incentive program, with greater government oversight and conditional funding tied to content and geographic preferences, in contrast to the broader, less prescriptive approach of the originally filed bill.