Picture more movies being made right here in Kentucky and Frankfort today.

A legislative committee said yes to a bill that would establish a Kentucky film office sponsored by Senator Philip Wheeler of Pikeville.

Senate Bill one would expand upon Kentucky's film incentive programs by adding a centralized department to support and market film productions in the Commonwealth.

More about this as we begin tonight's legislative update.

On the Kentucky film.

Motion picture and sound recording industry already generated about $200 million worth of revenue in 2022, which probably helped other businesses in the state generate another $128 million.

The industry, its suppliers and businesses where the employees and its suppliers are located and shopped are estimated to have paid about $27 million in local, state and federal taxes in 2022.

Senate Bill one will create the infrastructure inside the Kentucky Film Office, which will be administratively attached to the cabinet for Economic Development.

The Film Office will serve as the hub for marketing industry coordination, workforce development and solidifying Kentucky's position as an attractive destination for feature film production.

In 2022, the Kentucky Legislature passed the Kentucky Entertainment Incentive Program, and this is consistently ranked in the top five programs nationally.

However, states with newer and less robust incentive programs often report a return on investment of over $1 billion a year after just a few years in effect.

We are underperforming compared to our competition, not because of our incentive program, but because we lack a designated state film office to market Kentucky and the manpower to field industry inquiries and service major productions.

Among its key responsibilities, the office will work closely with the local and regional Film office's tourism commissions to streamline the permitting process, marking Kentucky as a prime location for film production and facilitate the development of a skilled workforce.

In collaboration with film film studios and training programs.

If you sit and look at, all of the credits when that film is done, I mean, there is every kind of job imaginable from, you know, the Carters to the drivers to makeup artists, and these are all jobs that can and will be filled by Kentuckians.

So beyond the numbers that you see in in the packet that you have, which are very, very compelling, the kind of ripple effect of the positive impact on Kentucky.

And, you know, the work of the film office to bring those productions, bring those dollars is so important.

We're losing a lot of series that are as as Senator Wheeler said.

You know, I know of, at least for since Hatfields and McCoys, they're set in Appalachia and are filmed in Atlanta or Romania or wherever.

So we need to get those Kentucky stories, at least home.

We've not done our job in the past quite showing what type of opportunities for the film industry are here.

A dedicated film office will help us get the type of productions needed to provide both important jobs and economic development investment within the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Senate Bill one was approved in committee today, and it's expected to get a Senate floor vote on Tuesday.

Since the Kentucky Entertainment Incentive Program was passed in 2022, a film productions have been approved and 76 Kentucky counties.