Hawai'i kept "Lost," but lost "Hawaii" and "North Shore," which helped drive down television and film production spending statewide by nearly 40 percent, to an estimated $100 million last year.

At the same time, several movie projects bypassed Hawai'i in favor of other locales that offered larger and simpler tax incentives, state film commissioner Donne Dawson told lawmakers yesterday.

"Hawai'i has experienced first-hand what it's like to lose productions to other jurisdictions with better, more effective incentives," she said during a legislative hearing on proposed TV and movie industry tax incentives.

Television and film production expenditures in the state fell to an estimated $100 million last year, down from $164 million in 2004, Dawson said. The drop was "due primarily to this competition with other jurisdictions," she said.

"Our local workers have suffered a drop in employment opportunities and many are collecting unemployment compensation between jobs, which are becoming fewer and far between."

Before 2004, the record for television and film spending in Hawai'i was $142 million in 2002.

It was estimated that the number of entertainment-industry jobs fell to about 4,000 statewide last year, compared with about 5,000 jobs during 2004 when three TV shows were in simultaneous production. The Hawai'i Film Office released the figures yesterday as film industry officials lobbied state lawmakers for increased tax incentives to keep and lure new entertainment projects.

Among the incentives discussed yesterday were: