Emma Yogan
Staff Writer
The California Legislature has approved a bill, which if signed into law this month by Gov. Gavin Newsom, will give local news organizations and journalists in California refundable tax credits.
The pending law is an effort to assist news companies in hiring new journalists, and retaining current journalists.
The bill, Assembly Bill 2222, was introduced by Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward, D-San Diego, on Feb. 19. It is designed to support local news organizations and outlets, generating new positions for journalists.
“AB 2222 will mean communities will be far more likely to have local journalists covering what’s important to them,” said Matt Pearce, director of policy at Rebuild Local News, a non-profit advocacy group. “It will also make it a more economically attractive investment for philanthropists and investors looking for new ways to strengthen community news outlets.”
“A lot of companies are cutting back on journalists and cutting back on printed editions,” said Richard Hasse, instructor of accounting and finance at the University of La Verne. “The state of California is aware of this and they want to keep those small newspapers in business, so they offer these tax credits and tax deductions by hiring local journalists and supporting them.”
AB 2222 would offer $20,000 per five journalist positions, with a $15,000 bonus for additional journalists, $15,000 for new hires, which are stackable on top of retention credits and $7,500 in credits for part-time journalists. Creating these incentives are designed to have the funds to keep existing staff while also producing additional positions.
Hasse described what a refundable tax credit would look like in the context of AB 2222.
“They’ll go ahead and hire a journalist, and they get a certain amount of money as a tax- deductible deduction on their tax return, it’s like a business expense,” Hasse said.
Jason Neidleman, professor of political science, emphasized the importance of the legislation.
“The decline of local newspapers has been pretty dismal,” Neidleman said. “But I think the more philosophical reason has to do with people being oriented toward national and international stories and away from local stories,” Neidleman said.
Sean Emery, president of the Media Guild of the West, explained why he and many others are strong supporters of AB 2222.
“We have seen over the past few years exactly how many cuts, buyouts and layoffs there have been within newsrooms and how much that has devastated the number of journalists within our newsrooms and within California overall,” Emery said. “Every time there’s a loss of journalism, that’s one more beat that’s not being covered.”
If approved by Newsom, the bill would apply to both commercial and nonprofit newsrooms, working across platforms including print, digital and broadcast outlets.
The bill would create more jobs for journalists, while also bringing communities together by providing more local news coverage.
Emma Yogan can be reached at emma.yogan@laverne.edu.
Emma Yogan is a senior communications major with a concentration in public relations. She is a member of the University of La Verne’s women’s volleyball team and a staff writer for the Campus Times.
