Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills Saturday, Sept. 19, creating California's first standalone tax credit for post-production work. The signing at the Television Academy in North Hollywood targets editors, visual effects artists and sound workers who have watched jobs leave the state.

Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2319 with Mayor Karen Bass and other officials present. The bill, authored by Assemblymember Nick Schultz of Burbank, offers a 35% to 50% credit on qualified post-production expenses performed in California.

The key difference from the state's existing film incentive program: productions do not have to shoot in California to claim the new credit. The current program requires 75% of filming or the overall budget to be spent in-state.

"This program will literally save jobs here in Los Angeles and across the state. … When California competes, we all win," Schultz said at the signing, according to Spectrum News.

Schultz initially proposed $100 million for the credit. Legislators set aside $10 million to launch it. Newsom called the $10 million a "down payment," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The credit takes effect Jan. 1.

Newsom also signed Senate Bill 186, authored by Sen. Ben Allen of El Segundo. That bill exempts independent film projects from the state's $5 million corporate tax credit cap. It cuts the payback period for productions that cash in refundable tax credits from five years to two and extends the life of older, non-refundable credits from nine years to 15.

Under SB 186, productions can now monetize 95% of their credits, up from 90%.

The two bills arrive as Los Angeles County absorbs steep entertainment job losses. California has lost more than 52,000 film and television jobs since 2022, with 99.6% of those losses in LA County, according to an LA County report cited by NBC Los Angeles. On-location production in the county fell 16% in 2025.

The county's creative economy supports more than 312,000 workers, including about 171,155 entertainment-sector jobs.

Before the signing, post-production workers described the stakes in personal terms. Karen Baker Landers, a two-time Oscar-winning supervising sound editor and vice president of the California Post Alliance, said at a Sept. 10 press conference that workers were losing health insurance as local post-production dried up. "I get people calling me asking to get just two weeks of work to qualify for coverage," she said, as the Los Angeles Times reported.

New York, New Jersey, Georgia, New Mexico, the U.K., Australia and Canada already offer post-production incentives. California's new credit puts the state in direct competition for that work.

California expanded its broader film and TV tax credit program from $330 million to $750 million annually through June 30, 2030. Since that expansion, Newsom's office said 170 projects have been announced, expected to bring more than $6.6 billion in economic activity and nearly 35,000 jobs statewide.

AB 2319 passed the state Senate 33-5 and the Assembly 72-2 on Aug. 30. SB 186 cleared the Assembly 68-2 and the Senate 32-8.