Fla. Lawmakers Worry About Tax Breaks for Video Game Companies

Some Florida lawmakers want to place new limits on the state's entertainment-industry incentive program, concerned that too many of the tax breaks are being gobbled up by video-game giant Electronic Arts Inc.

"To have such a concentration of it going to games — I mean, people sitting at computer terminals — I'm not sure most of us really think that's film," said state Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater. "Film is movies. … People have to hire a lot of folks and they have meals and have to stay in a hotel room."

"I think we ought to be focused on those kinds of things [rather] than games," he added.

Latvala is not alone. During a meeting Thursday in Tallahassee, members of the Florida Senate's Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development grilled state officials about whether video-game projects deserve public subsidies over television and feature-film productions.

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