New York City's Mayor Bloomberghas signed into law a bill that expands the city's 5% tax credit on below-the-line expenses for qualified film and television productions.

The New York State 2007 executive budget allocates $30m in annual funding for the tax credit scheme through 2011, complementing a $60m state allocation for a 10% tax credit spanning the same period.

The law broadens the provisions of the Empire State Film Production Credit programme introduced in August 2004, which also authorised the city to set up a film production tax credit.

Municipal leaders duly enacted a 5% city tax credit for eligible film and television productions in January 2005, and authorities say the move has been so successful that by March of this year the programme had reached its $50m allocation and ploughed $1.5bn into the local economy.

The New York State 2007 executive budget proposed to expand state and city credits in the form of $60m and $30m annual funding allocations respectively, with local opt-in.These allocations will be retroactive from 2006 and run until 2011.

Studio projects currently shooting in New York include Sony's Spider-Man 3, Warner Bros' thriller The Brave starring Jodie Foster, and 20th CenturyFox's adventure Jumper starringJamie Bell.

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