New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says she has made an “aggressive” effort to reassure film and TV production executives and the Broadway theater community that the state ardently supports their industries.
“I was just sitting down with [Disney CEO] Bob Iger yesterday, talking about how I want more production in New York state,” Hochul said during an appearance at the Paley Center for Media in New York. “London shouldn’t exist. Forget about Georgia. He listened. I’m a little aggressive, as you can tell.”
Hochul said the state’s current incentives are “very generous,” offering a tax credit of up to 30% of a production’s budget. Funding for the program nearly doubled last year to a total value of $700 million through 2034. “I want to make sure we don’t lose business to New Jersey or Georgia or Toronto or London,” Hochul said. “The talent wants to be in New York, by the way. All the talent wants to be here. They started here, they have friends here, they have family here. But they will go where the show goes. So we have to continue to make it worth their while to do this.”
No specific dealings or productions under Iger’s aegis were mentioned, but Hochul said she is “always trying to do more. If Disney has 6,000 jobs, I want to know how we can get to 7,000.”
The View has recently shifted its studio home from the longtime ABC headquarters on the Upper West Side down to Disney’s new corporate headquarters in Hudson Square, a neighborhood just west of SoHo recently christened by real estate developers. Other production is due to follow and Disney’s movie and streaming production operations have historically had a steady New York presence.
Hochul said she has also carried her message to the West Coast. “I’ve gone out to Hollywood,” she said. “I’ve sat in rooms with all the major producers. I told them about our incentives, our workforce, the apprenticeship training programs, the caliber of the work, and they know they’re going to be looking at the bottom line.” As with her insistence with Iger, she said, “I have to always be persuading them.”
Creative people “gravitate here,” Hochul said of New York. “When you think about what sets us apart, it’s really creative talent. When people see productions made on their streets, it makes them feel it’s a cool place to live. And I’m always trying to up the cool factor.”
Hochul also said she has recently met with Broadway stakeholders to hear their concerns. “They said London is cheaper to do productions,” she said. “So, we’ve got to look at that. We’re not losing to London.”
The task of marketing to audiences in the Tri-State area in and around New York City has been complicated by several high-profile crimes in the subway system, Hochul noted. Last March, the governor ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to be deployed on subway platforms and in stations after a spate of shootings, stabbings and passengers being shoved onto the tracks.
“What do they worry about? They worry about crime on the subways? Tell me their anxieties,” the governor said she urged Broadway constituents. If subway crime is a major hindrance to area ticket buyers, she added, “I’ll keep the National Guard on the subways until people tell me they feel safe.”
While waves of press attention have put a bright spotlight on crime, Hochul said actual rates of violent crime and everyday crime in the subway has dropped back to pre-Covid levels of 2017 to 2019. This year is trending to be the safest in the past three decades except for 2009, she added.
