Could it be a wrap for the Hawai'i Film Office?

Donne Dawson, the state's film commissioner, and most of her staff are on Gov. Linda Lingle's potential layoff list.

The film office, which helped attract $146 million in spending on film and television projects last year, is the liaison between the government and filmmakers and provides information on permits and tax incentives.

"I was given no information other than my name was on the list," Dawson said, adding that a handful of her staff have also been identified for layoffs. The manager of the Hawai'i Film Studio at Diamond Head was spared.

The film industry branch is under the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Ted Liu, the department's director, did not return telephone calls seeking comment late yesterday.

Lingle has said she prefers furloughs to layoffs to help with a $786 million budget deficit through June 2011. But the governor has given public-sector labor unions a list of 1,100 state workers who could lose their jobs if the state does not reduce labor costs in new contracts.

The film office, created in 1978, offers filmmakers guidance on Island locations, local crew and talent, housing and cultural practices. The office also coordinates permits for filming and provides instruction on how to obtain local production and high-technology investment tax credits.

Film and television spending in the Islands reached a record $229 million in 2007, with feature films such as the action-comedy "Tropic Thunder," which was shot on Kaua'i, and the hit television drama "Lost," shot on O'ahu.

"In particular, the loss of Donne Dawson would be a disaster," said Bill Meyer, an intellectual property attorney in Honolulu who works in entertainment law. "She has, over the last eight or nine years that she's held that position, brought Hawai'i into the kind of vanguard of desirable jurisdictions to do business."

Meyer said producers look at locations and tax incentives when considering a state but also for a liaison like Dawson.

"She has established the 'aloha' and the relationships with all the right people, not only nationally but internationally," he said.

Dana Hankins, a producer at Redhead Productions in Nu'uanu, said closing the film office would be "absolutely huge" because such offices are often the first stop for producers.

"That was the welcome mat, that was the 'aloha,' that gave us a sense of what we were to anticipate coming into a new place to film," she said. "That was the business card."

Even after 15 years in the state, Hankins said, she still relies on the film office for help with state and county permits.

"They guide me, and they guide any other producer through that process," she said. "I think it's fair to say that no one else can do what they do. There is a wealth of knowledge there based on the experience and based on the relationships that they've built up with heads of all those regulatory agencies."

State lawmakers passed a bill last session that would have moved the film office out of DBEDT and established a new Hawai'i Television and Film Development Board within the Hawai'i Tourism Authority. Lingle vetoed the bill, which would have also shifted other responsibilities from DBEDT, calling it shortsighted and disruptive to economic recovery. The governor's veto was overriden by the state Senate, but the state House did not override, so the veto held.

"I obviously don't believe it's the right decision because I think the film office helps the economy," state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, D-14th (Halawa, Moanalua, Kamehameha Heights), said of Dawson's potential layoff. "One of the reasons why we did the re-org is we thought there would be synergy between the film office and HTA and that they could benefit from HTA's marketing dollars."

Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann cited Dawson's potential layoff as a reason why mayors have asked for a copy of Lingle's layoff list.

"I recently learned that the Hawai'i film commissioner is on the layoff list. Now how does that make sense?" Hannemann said. "This is a position that is a revenue-generating position. Donne Dawson's job is to bring film projects to the state. And the last I heard, she's on the layoffs list. And I had to hear about it, again, through a third party.

"So this is why we ask for that layoff list so that Mayor (Billy) Kenoi doesn't get surprised when it's Kulani Prison, that I don't get surprised because of my belief that the film industry is an economic, revenue-generating opportunity."