This year's legislative session is getting rave reviews from the TV and film industries, which stand to benefit from a proposed increase in production tax incentives.

However, Hawai'i's technology sector yesterday was less enthusiastic about the session, which ends this week without the creation of a hoped-for $100 million program that would have invested in local companies.

Both sectors of the economy consider themselves as critical parts of efforts to grow and diversify the state's economy. For the film sector a three-year effort to persuade lawmakers to revamp entertainment industry tax incentives appears to have paid off.

If it's adopted, Senate Bill 2570 would increase Hawai'i's 4 percent production tax credit to 15 percent on O'ahu and 20 percent on the Neighbor Islands. The amount of credits available would be capped at $8 million per production. At the same time, the industry's hotel room tax exemption would be eliminated.

The state hands out an estimated $28 million in film tax credits each year. Still, the increase in the production tax credit is not expected to cost the state more money. That's because the film industry's use of a 100 percent tax credit for investors would decline, according to state officials.

The changes put Hawai'i in a position to better compete with other areas for TV and film work, said state Film Commissioner Donne Dawson.

"This is what the industry has been working very hard for for the last three years — to get Hawai'i back on the map and in a very competitive position with other jurisdictions nationally and internationally," she said.

"The word is getting out that this has happened and I think productions are going to start lining up" to shoot in Hawai'i, Dawson said.

For Hawai'i's technology industry, this year's session wraps up without the creation of a program to boost the availability of capital for businesses seeking to expand. Senate Bill 2546 creates a new Innovation Special Fund, which will receive an estimated $100 million in general funds during the next four years. However, the bill fails to set up the apparatus needed to invest the money in local companies.

"A least it's something," said Ann Chung, vice president of the Hawaii Science & Technology Council, which represents technology and life sciences businesses. "They could have easily done nothing."

Chung said industry proponents will lobby for the proposed program again next year.

"We just have some more work to do," she said.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.