Gov. Sonny Perdue has signed a tax-incentive bill that will give Georgia's film, TV and video game production companies as much as a 30 percent tax break, matching or exceeding many other states trying to lure movies and TV shows.

To qualify, businesses need to spend at least $500,000 in Georgia. So a company that expends $10 million in a year and owes $3 million in taxes won't pay a penny in Georgia taxes as long as it embeds a logo-bearing Georgia commercial within the project. If not, the company would get a 20 percent break and owe $1 million.

The previous incentive plan, passed in 2005, provided a 9 percent break, so this theoretical company will save $2.1 million under the new law. On the flip side, it means $2.1 million less in the tax coffers.

But Perdue said more production work equals more jobs and more potential tax money from other sources.

"It means hotel rooms are booked," Perdue said at a news conference at Turner Studios on Monday. "It means catering companies have work. It means money flowing to Georgia businesses big and small alike."

Bill Thompson, deputy commissioner of Georgia's Film, Music & Digital Entertainment office, said 30 to 40 projects were waiting in the wings for this bill to pass. Most of them, he said, would have gone elsewhere without the added incentives.

Anthony Morris and partner John Gibson are working on a film version of their hugely successful local play "Peachtree Battle." These incentives, Morris said, "will make the sale of Atlanta as a site for the film much easier."

Dan Darling, Turner's chief information officer, said Turner Studios has already doubled its studio space in Atlanta over five years, adding 40,000 to 50,000 square feet.

"This will help continue our growth here in Georgia," he said.

Georgia was a popular spot for films in the 1970s and 1980s, but projects began to dry up in the 1990s when Canada began offering financial incentives, followed by Louisiana in 2001.