When Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders were negotiating a final state budget last June, they reduced some health and welfare programs to help close a multi-billion-dollar gap between income and outgo.

Nevertheless, they agreed to more than double the state’s subsidy to Southern California’s film and video industry, which enjoys strong political clout, by setting aside $750 million for tax credits, to induce producers to shoot in California rather than in some other state or country.

“You’ve got to be competitive, and now we’re competitive,” Newsom said as he signed Assembly Bill 1138 at a Burbank studio. “Not to be the cheapest place to do business — that’s never been California’s brand or motto going back a century. We want to be the best place.”

The film and video subsidy is o

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