Hollywood is hemorrhaging jobs, the California dream is becoming a California nightmare, and Democrat gubernatorial candidates are suddenly tripping over themselves to hand out bigger taxpayer subsidies to fix a crisis their own policies created.
Roughly 51,000 film and television production jobs have disappeared in California over the past three years, with Los Angeles taking the brunt of the damage. Industry analysts are now comparing the collapse to the gutting of Southern California's aerospace sector in the early 1990s, a comparison that should send a shiver down the spine of every working family in the state.
The cause is no mystery to anyone paying attention. Crushing taxes, suffocating regulation, a broken permitting system, rampant crime, and a hostile political climate have sent production companies fleeing to states like Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee, along with cheaper foreign destinations. The free market has rendered its verdict on Sacramento's governance, and California is losing.
Candidates Scramble to Save What Democrats Broke
Rather than address the structural rot driving businesses out of the state, California's Democrat candidates for governor are proposing the one solution progressives always reach for: more government, more subsidies, more taxpayer money thrown at a problem government created.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan wants to scrap the cap on California's $750 million production tax credit program entirely and extend the handouts to cover the salaries of actors and producers.
"Hollywood is the centerpiece of the California economy," Mahan told Variety. "We've got a tremendous number of middle class jobs at stake in an industry that is suffering. We are down 35% from our 2022 peak. The reality is that other states and countries are doing more to attract this industry. We can't lose Hollywood."
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is beating the same drum. "We haven't done enough," he said. "I believe this election is existential for the film industry. They're not going to film here, not when the rest of the world and other states are staying above and below the line."
Translation: California has become so unfriendly to business that even one of America's most iconic industries is packing up and leaving.
Newsom's Failed Fix
The current program was already expanded under Governor Gavin Newsom, who boosted funding and made the credits refundable while adding eligibility for animation and competition shows. The results speak for themselves. Production has continued to crater. Throwing more taxpayer money at a broken business climate is not a strategy. It is an admission of failure.
Recent data shows that only about 11% of television productions and 17% of films in Los Angeles even qualified for state credits in late 2025. The rest simply left.
Papering Over a Deeper Problem
Industry groups are now fighting over how to slice up the subsidy pie. Labor unions want the money steered toward below the line crew jobs, while the studios are lobbying to scoop up subsidies for their highest paid stars and executives. That is the natural endgame of any government giveaway program: a lobbyist free for all where politically connected insiders win and taxpayers foot the bill.
Former Representative Katie Porter, ever the cautious progressive, wants to "review" the program before signing off on expansion. "If we are hitting the limit of what we have allocated and we are seeing more potential, we should go back and not let the cap stand in our way," she said. "I'm not afraid to raise the cap if we're seeing really good take up."
Of course she isn't. Raising the cap is always the Democrat answer.
The Lesson California Refuses to Learn
Hollywood's decline is not a mystery requiring another blue ribbon commission. It is the predictable result of decades of one party rule that has punished producers, coddled criminals, piled on mandates, and driven up the cost of doing anything in California to absurd heights. No subsidy program, however generous, can outrun bad governance forever.
Until California fixes the fundamentals of taxes, regulation, crime, and red tape, no amount of taxpayer funded Band Aids will keep the cameras rolling. And with voters heading into the next gubernatorial election watching their paychecks shrink and their neighbors pack U-Hauls bound for red states, the message to Sacramento should be clear.
You cannot subsidize your way out of the mess you made.
- Article Source:
The Post Millennial
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