Hot on the heels of the Austin City Council rolling out the incentive red carpet to keep Friday Night Lights turned on, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 1634 this weekend, also known as the Texas Film Incentive Program.

The bill, authored by Rep. Dawnna Dukes (Austin, represent!) and spearheaded by Sen. Bob Deuell (R-Greenville) along side our very own Governor Rick Perry, will set aside $20 million worth of incentives to entice future productions to come to Texas. There is some interesting language in the bill about portraying the state in only the most positive light (I guess there will be no documentaries funded regarding the TYC debacle) but nonetheless, the bill is at least the first step in regaining some of the financial windfall that has been lost recently to neighbors like Louisiana and New Mexico, who have already put heavy incentive plans in place.

HB 1634 enacts a rebate policy for any film project that drops more than $1 million in Texas on expenses such as wages, equipment, and more importantly, craft services (mmmm, snacks.) Any project completed after September 1st would be eligible to recoup up to 5% of their costs, with a maximum reimbursement of $2 million. Even greater incentives will be allotted to projects that are completed in some godforsaken place like Nacogdoches or College Station, also known as “underserved areas,” or alternately, “not Dallas or Austin.” We think they deserve the extra 1.5% refund. We would actually go so far as to propose that even the productions in Dallas should get a little something extra for their pain, suffering and what is sure to be an astronomical designer hairspray tab.

Pretty much the only step left in the process of getting the cash flowing out of the capitol doors and into the hands of the Hollywood machine is for Gov. Perry to sign on the dotted line. Ink it up, Gov. and let’s bring the Movies and their economy boosting Benjamin's back to Tejas.