On June 23, Texas governor Greg Abbot allowed the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund to pass into law. The fund allocates $1 billion to the Texas film industry. The state will provide the fund with $300 million every two years for the next 10 years. The bill goes into effect September 1 and will provide cash grants to certain projects filmed in the states. To receive the funds, film and television projects must meet certain requirements: 55% of paid crew and 55% of paid cast members, including extras, must be Texas residents, and 60% of the total production must be completed in Texas.

The law comes after influential Texans such as Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as well as Dennis Quaid, Renée Zellweger, and Billy Bob Thornton pushed for the state to do more to draw in more media companies. McConaughey implored Texas Senate Committee on Finance in March to do more. “[We need] painters, special effects, transportation, accountants, bookkeepers,” he said. “We were losing Texas stories to New Mexico, Louisiana and Georgia,” said Chase Musslewhite, co-founder of the advocacy group Media for Texas. “We want to shoot them in Texas.” The show Fear the Walking Dead left filming in Texas for Georgia in search of more money.

Taylor Sheridan, producer of the popular Yellowstone has filmed several projects in Texas, including the popular Landman and 1883, was also a key voice for the bill. He called state subsidies “necessary.” “It is a necessary implementation of our business. The model that these networks and these studios operates by now mandates that you have one. They cannot and will not finance a film without an incentive from a state. They will not do it,” he said.

Not everyone, however, is thrilled about the idea of more Hollywood in Texas. Texans for Fiscal Responsibility criticized the bill. “The bill undermines core principles of limited government, creates a large, recurring carve-out from essential state revenues, and prioritizes corporate welfare for Hollywood-style projects over pressing taxpayer needs like tax relief,” it declared. Sen. Paul Bettencourt pushed back against the bill in March, stating such projects did not promote Texas values. “When you look at ‘Landman’ — it’s completely wrong,” said Sen. Paul Bettencourt, at the hearing in March. “It’s not functionally correct. It doesn’t explain what a landman does. Having Billy Bob Thornton f-bomb every other sentence is not Texas values. We do need to get a handle on this.”