Top Republican lawmaker supports lawsuit to end Arizona movie tax credits

In 2022, a bipartisan group of Arizona lawmakers created a film tax credit to lure the movie business to Arizona. Now, a top GOP state lawmaker is trying to quash that law.

The state program offers up to 20% tax credits to movie production companies filming in Arizona.

The Goldwater Institute, a conservative thinktank, argues in a lawsuit filed at the beginning of this year that those credits violate the state constitution’s Gift Clause. They say the credits amount to subsidies to private companies.

The defendants, including the Arizona Commerce Authority, are asking the court to dismiss the case outright.

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert), who opposed the bill creating the tax credits three years ago, and filed an amicus brief supporting Goldwater’s case.

Petersen says the tax credits are so narrowly applied that they don’t benefit Arizonans — just one particular industry.

“The last thing we need to do is help billionaires in Hollywood with Arizona taxpayer money. Arizona taxpayers should not be funding billionaires in Hollywood,” he said.

In 2022, the movie tax credits legislation passed with bipartisan support, but significant Republican opposition. Then-GOP Gov. Doug Ducey allowed the bill to become law without signing it.

“Such boondoggles pass under the old way, when leadership and a couple big spending members sit down with their favorite lobbyists and decide how to spend all the money. Then they try to cobble enough votes to pass the budget. Frustration by most was always the result,” Petersen posted on X.