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Actors hoping to revive Colorado’s sagging movie industry

STEVEN K. PAULSONthe associated press

DENVER – Actor John Singer has died more times than he can remember.He died as a passenger in the movie “Crash: The Mystery of Flight 1501.” He portrayed Roger Dean in the television series “Unsolved Mysteries,” about a food broker who was killed in suburban Lone Tree. He acted in five or six Perry Mason shows, seven or eight shows of “Father Dowling,” and two “Diagnosis Murder” – all filmed in Colorado.”Directors like to look at me and say, ‘Kill him,”‘ said Singer, president of Colorado’s Screen Actors Guild, which has about 500 mostly unemployed members.Those who have work say they found jobs in other states, like New Mexico and Wyoming, which have active film commissions that offer incentives to producers.”We’re the hole in the doughnut. States all around us are going out to look for business,” said Bill McLain, the guild’s vice president.The guild members are hoping to revive Colorado’s once-flourishing television and film industry: A bill in the Legislature (House Bill 1146) would create one-stop shopping for permits and give producers sales and use-tax exemptions for making their films in Colorado.A companion measure (House Bill 1205), which will be heard this week in committee, would formally eliminate the state’s motion picture and television advisory commission, which was dissolved three years ago after Gov. Bill Owens transferred film duties to the Office of Economic Development. The goal is to clear the way for a privately operated film and TV commission.Rep. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge, said the state has a rich film history. She said the two bills are intended to jump-start the industry.”New Mexico and Wyoming are taking this away from us because they offer incentives,” she said.Other bills coming up this week:• A Senate committee will hear a proposal (Senate Bill 131) that would allow the state to make public some records on how money was spent on homeland security. Lawmakers have complained they are being kept in the dark on how Owens is spending federal funds on homeland security, and the administration says laws limit the amount of information for which lawmakers can have access.• A Senate committee will hear plans (Senate Bill 143) to implement Amendment 37. The amendment approved Nov. 2 requires utilities that serve more than 40,000 customers to provide 3 percent of electricity sales from renewable energy sources by 2007; 6 percent by 2011; and 10 percent by 2015. Of those amounts, 4 percent must come from solar power, which utilities say is extremely expensive compared with other forms of renewable energy such as wind power.• The House health committee will take up a plan (House Bill 1161) to create a tracking system for child immunizations, a proposal that has been opposed in the past as a violation of medical privacy.


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