Originally published Dec. 30, 2012

During the past three years, even as it has struggled with shrinking tax revenue, the Florida Legislature has dramatically expanded the amount of incentives available to film and entertainment companies.
Supporters say the tax breaks lure high-profile movie, television and digital-media projects to the state and foster the growth of a high-tech, creative work force.
But the biggest beneficiary of those expanded breaks is a multibillion-dollar video-game developer that was designing games in Central Florida long before it began receiving incentives — and employs fewer people in the region today than it did five years ago.
That company is Electronic Arts Inc., the Redwood City, Calif.-based video-game giant developing games at its EA Tiburon studio in Maitland since the mid-1990s.
Florida awarded EA more than $9.1 million in tax credits during the state's 2011-12 fiscal year to subsidize development of the 2012 editions of three popular EA sports games: Madden NFL, NCAA Football and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. It was the largest amount one company has received in a single year in the history of Florida's entertainment-based incentive program.
Next year should be even better for EA, which generated more than $4 billion in worldwide sales during its fiscal 2012. The company is tentatively in line for $14.5 million worth of tax credits — to subsidize development of the 2013 versions of the same three video games.
EA is profiting so handsomely from Florida's entertainment incentives because it helped rewrite the state program. Records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel show that lobbyists for EA have worked closely with an influential Central Florida lawmaker — state Rep. Steve Precourt, R-Orlando — to mold the 9-year-old program to EA's advantage.
In one instance, an EA lobbyist suggested a revision to the program that was adopted, almost verbatim, by the Legislature a month later. The change could soon save EA several million dollars more each year.
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