A move by New York State to pour another $350 million into its stalled film/TV incentive program has been called too little and too late by Canadian border players.

‘It’s not going to make a dent,’ Hans Fraikin, film commissioner with the Quebec Film and Television Council, said of the budget agreement reached in Albany over the weekend that is well short of the previous $690-million tax-incentive program that ran dry earlier this year owing to excess demand.

Fraikin, who was in Los Angeles last week, said major studios he spoke to regard the sequel to the Empire State’s tax-credit program as a stop-gap measure not likely to draw TV series from neighboring U.S. states and Canadian provinces, now that the Hollywood TV pilot season is well underway.

‘They can’t rely on it [the New York tax credit],’ he said, underlining the need among Los Angeles TV producers for certainty as they eye long-term commitments to locations.

Ken Ferguson, president of Filmport Studios in Toronto, said he expects New York to renew its incentive program. But he projects that the new tax-credit rate will be between 10% and 15%, south from the recent 30%, which should draw little footloose production away from Canada.

Ferguson added that the new program will be capped at around $100 million a year, which means the money will dry up quickly.

New York distributed $460 million in tax incentives in 2008, but hasn’t snagged new TV projects since its funding ran out. Instead, Vancouver attracted Fox’s Fringe and Montreal snagged the Spike TV series Blue Mountain State from Lionsgate and Varsity Pictures. Toronto has pulled in a host of pilots, including 20th Century Fox’s Battle of Maggie Hill, the ABC/Disney drama Happy Town and Back from CBS/Paramount.

New York lawmakers will vote on the budget on Wednesday.