The outcome of the 83rd Nevada Legislative Session ended up being the complete failure of Nevada’s development into a new central film and media production hub as both the SB220 and AB238 Film Tax Credit Bills failed to pass.
What Happened?
As readers of this development blog would know, despite having such complete access and support from Babs Do Productions and the work and guidance we provided, including strong constructive criticism when necessary, both Summerlin Studios and Nevada Studios teams made the unusual decision to stand by their barely revised bills at the last minute during the Senate voting session. Instead of using their time to work towards answering the concerns of the Legislature and the needs of the public with further last minute revisions, both teams barreled forward in spite of one negative hearing after another and, even at the point of clearly having a bill that didn’t work, they ignored the chance to at least provide our more refined Universal Film Tax Credit Bill in their place.
Senator Roberta Lange proposed that AB238 and SB220 merge into one bill but that was before the final decision to submit the barely revised versions of the bills to the Senate. She then proceeded to write off her own SB220 bill and proposed taking the opposing AB238 bill and turn it into an economic study for having a film studio in Nevada until the next session. SB220 ended up with no votes in the Senate and failed to proceed further. The AB238 bill, having gone the furthest with the most investment for commercials, advertising, and social media presence, was placed in the bottom of the general file which meant that there was never going to be enough time to consider it.
How Did We Get Here?
Since the introduction of the bills, we have been actively working to provide refinements and revisions that would help all parties involved and especially Nevada citizens and the state’s future development in film and media. Whether it was through a revised bill, a new bill, or a union of both bills, the Summerlin Studios and Nevada Studios developments were provided every option to work with Babs Do in order to present Nevada with the most technically advanced film production tax credit program to date as well as the introduction of the most unique aspect of providing film and media infrastructure tax credits.
When the bills were released, the first thing we noticed that there were many similarities and issues within their language that would make them fall very short of providing exactly what Nevada was calling for in terms of film and media infrastructure as well as a modernized film tax credit program. We had initially reached out to both sides after posting our findings within the bills and suggested a series of changes and points of concern.
A key point to mention was that we also had our Babs Do Studios development that could serve as an ideal partner to the entire campaign as we could quickly build temporary modular studio facilities during the major construction of either or both Summerlin Studios and Nevada Studios that we could then dismantle and relocate into our own site once construction neared its end in 2028 and 2029. In this way, production infrastructure could be provided for everyone and we could kickstart Nevada’s new film and media industry and establish a hold right away on several major productions with Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. and all within 2025!
Discussions continued over the months leading up to the Legislative Session’s end, more responses coming from Nevada Studios’ side than Summerlin Studios but we saw some progress in the first round of revision notes for errors and corrections we had recommended. However, a concerning pattern emerged where the only fixes and adjustments were minor text and process notes, none of the major features such as:
- Opening up infrastructure tax credits for other studios
- Decreasing the minimum spend amount to spur production at all levels
- Raising the $6 Million Dollar production credit cap allotment for independent filmmakers
- Including infrastructure tax credits for other projects besides film studios
- Bringing the credits up to 2025 instead of having to wait until 2028 at the earliest
- Removing DEI Language, Practices, Reporting, and Quotas
All of those were ignored repeatedly as the months went on. Even during the hearings for the bills where the Legislature and public commentary pointed out several issues and concerns with the bills, they were all left unanswered and the only response from either side was to offer more unrelated benefits and donations to other causes that had nothing to do with the main purpose of the program. A purpose that should have been to make a modernized film tax credit program for production in Nevada as well as adding new infrastructure credits to help its development.
All along we had been utilizing Grok AI to quickly provide new edits and revisions of SB220 and AB238 to send to both sides as issues and concerns were pointed out. Because the worry was that the bills could be killed off at any moment during the Session, the speed and precision Grok AI provided was a real lifesaver for this effort. We made versions of the bills that provided fixes, added Babs Do Studios, combined both bills, and one that combined both bills and Babs Do Studios for the most comprehensive infrastructure development bill possible for the state. Ultimately this led to the creation of our Universal Film Tax Credit Bill that began as stripped down “Studio-Less” versions of SB220 and AB238 that revealed that both bills were essentially the same but with different companies behind them. This Universal Bill was expanded to fill in the gaps with additional infrastructure items, advances present in other bills being proposed in other states, and solutions to meet all concerns for economic impact by the Legislative Session and to alleviate the concerns of the public commentary to spread the benefits of the bill to all Nevada artists and tax paying citizens through major film and media infrastructure development incentives that serve the entire state. Most importantly, this Universal Bill offered enough tax credits to provide for all studio developments and various other infrastructure projects to start right away without several years of waiting.
Ideally this entire effort should have seen all developers, city officials, departments, and politicians working together for the sake of Nevada’s economy and industry, however, throughout the entire campaign, our efforts to bring Babs Do Studios to Nevada were often met with clear bias and preference for Summerlin Studios and Nevada Studios, even though the general statement had been “We can’t choose sides!”. As the only UNLV-Film-Trained, Nevada-Born, and completely independent film studio proposal in Nevada, we were surprised that this was the stance multiple parties took throughout the campaign because we are also the only development that still wanted to build in Nevada even if AB238 and SB220 fail!
Overall, the simple solution was to open the infrastructure credits up for other studio developments, that is all they had to do. What couldn’t be done for $95 Million Dollars of tax credits that $65 Million Dollars couldn’t do? What would it have hurt to partner with Babs Do Studios, even if it might be a slight additional expense, if it meant that they could have sound stages and production facilities almost right away with immense economic impact covered with the bill’s passing? Who needed to be “First” on this and who did that serve? Worst of all was the slogan and attitude that the bills “needed to prove themselves to the state with investment”. No other state or program required anybody to “prove themselves”, just build the film studio and get the new program running, that’s all anyone asked for.
Behind the scenes, it has been indicated to us that many things seem to have been occurring under the radar. We won’t name any names but it sounds like there were reasons that appeared suddenly and unexpectedly and were very much outside most of everybody’s control that led to the bills being thrown out as they were and ultimately derailing their campaigns in the end. Whatever the case, Nevada is once again back at square one with no new film and media infrastructure and an outdated film tax credit program that fails to compete.
What Now?
In the end, in retrospect, Nevada dodged a bullet with these bills not passing. Even though the campaign talked about all the jobs and opportunities the bills would provide, a number of economic analyses refuted these claims with numbers that didn’t line up with what the programs promised. The current jobs crisis and production slump in Nevada would be much worse by 2028 without some sort of immediate remedy and even though the construction of Summerlin Studios may have completed by then, there was talk during meetings at UNLV college that there could still be an additional “year or two to be fully operational”. Not only would the timeline most likely not match, the bills’ language set either Summerlin Studios or Nevada Studios as the sole point of infrastructure for the entire state, meaning that only one film studio would serve the entire state of Nevada! The only solution would be for someone else to come in and lead a whole new campaign during the next Nevada Legislature to amend the program or introduce a whole new program to offer other studios and independent developers like Babs Do Studios a solution to build in the state. Incredibly, this aspect of the bills was not called out during the session or as one third-party theory put it, simply by the number of concerns or issues with the bills, perhaps it was decided in advance that the bills simply would never pass and that would explain the number of times the bills were simply pushed forward without recommendation, the Legislature knew they weren’t going to pass in the end.
Monopolistic nightmares aside, the studio designs and the bills themselves simply weren’t competitive to Nevada’s main points of competition, California, New Mexico, Texas, Georgia, Utah, New Jersey, or even Kentucky! Babs Do Studios, combined with Summerlin Studios and Nevada Studios would have been the best almost overnight development chance for Nevada to compete directly with these other more developed states and international offerings. For example, Babs Do Studios, if given the same near $1 Billion Dollar budget as Summerlin Studios or Nevada Studios, could potentially build the most massive production complex and studio space in the country to service almost any amount of production, animation, videogame development, and any other kind of media project with ease. While we wouldn’t have expected to start out that big as even our Universal Film Tax Credit Bill couldn’t bring us up to that level right away, our bill would have certainly opened up things so much for our Babs Do Studios Infrastructure Plan for Nevada in order to secure the state’s future development as a new central hub of film and media production.
Because of this, we will soon be exploring our options to campaign for the 84th Nevada Legislative Session in 2027 with our Universal Film Tax Credit Bill to provide the infrastructure and production incentives Nevada needs to compete in the increasingly global entertainment industry!
As for “Babs Do Studios – Nevada” in the meantime, we have a few options left that we are exploring. We have contacted Governor Joe Lombardo’s office to hopefully find a solution somewhere to start at at least a mid-tier studio in Las Vegas for the time being. Aside from that there are some parties that may, like us, still be interested in Nevada’s film and media development and even Howard Hughes Holdings, Birtcher Development, and MBS Group could possibly have some interest as well even though AB238 and SB220 didn’t work out. We know that Nevada artists are in need of new innovation and support and we want to help that situation as best as we can as we do truly do care about the investment in jobs, in stories, and in entertainment for all and especially in Nevada, our home! Even if we have to start Babs Do Studios somewhere else for now, Nevada will still remain a part of our production plans as we have several exciting Nevada-based projects in development. As always, stay tuned for more!
EXTRA
With current events in California painting a grim image for Hollywood’s future as the center of the entertainment industry for the United States, we hope that investors, as well as Nevada and other states, can see the potential in our Babs Do Studios Infrastructure Plan which may be needed more than any other time in the very near future if the situation doesn’t resolve itself soon. Consideration for new Film and Media Infrastructure at this time should be considered of vital importance for business in the country and we have the best solution to build quickly and economically with Babs Do Studios!