I know gwb has a bee in his bonnett about this film credit, but it doesn't impress me that much. Maybe it is a net loser for the state, maybe not, but film production is not a very attractive industry to me. The jobs are temporary for the most part, Hollywood accounting is notoriously creative so who knows what is actually being spent and the productions themselves can be quite disruptive and annoying for local residents.
Well in this case, the state should eliminate the targeted tax credits for all the other industries, eh? You know the disruptive energy industry that is a net loser for the state where the jobs are temporary leaving sections of the state an environmental wasteland that is annoying to local residents while using some of the most creative accounting ever seen. But never mind, the Republicans in the state have not only approved fracking with the weakest regulations of any state but provided large tax credits for it. Not to mention doing the same for Duke Power who spends it time dumping coal sludge in our rivers.
Well I can't speak for republicans, because i no longer vote for them. But I'm against the state picking and choosing which industries get investment from the state. Period. To think that pols can do a better job than the free mkt is ludicrous to me. And the numbers that were provided for NC film benefits were provided by the state of NC film partnership with the industry. That is the same kind of entity that the other states used that claimed large benefits for their states. And then the state auditors found it was a bunch of bull. I saw nowhere in the link that the numbers for NC came from the state auditor. It says they came from the film group of the economic development commission. If other states show there is a loss in this type of investment and the NC auditors claimed that they doubled their money, i would smell a rat.
You can go to the website of the state government North Carolina Film Office and find all the links to the numbers and all of the credits that have been granted. http://www.ncfilm.com/ Here is the wikipedia page on it that provides more informational links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Film_Office While we are at it here is a list of Notable Films/Television made in North Carolina Alphabetically listed 28 Days A Walk to Remember Being There Blue Velvet Bull Durham The Butcher's Wife The Color Purple The Crow Dawson’s Creek Days of Thunder Dirty Dancing Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Dream a Little Dream Eastbound and Down Empire Records Firestarter Forrest Gump The Fugitive The Green Mile Hannibal Homeland The Hunt for Red October The Hunger Games I Know What You Did Last Summer Iron Man 3 Junebug Kiss the Girls Last of the Mohicans Leatherheads The Marc Pease Experience Message in a Bottle Mr. Destiny Muppets from Space Nights in Rodanthe One Tree Hill Patch Adams Revolution Richie Rich Safe Haven The Secret Life of Bees Shallow Hal Sleeping with the Enemy Sleepy Hollow Surface Super Mario Brothers Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby Teen Spirit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday Under the Dome Weekend at Bernie's
The point is, that the state of NC film office is not the state auditor. It is just like the other state film offices that projected huge investment returns that all turned out to be bogus when the auditor audited them. The state of NC film office gets their projections from the film industry just like other states.
I personally would be happy to see all states stop this kind of targeted assistance, aka bribes, to bring in businesses. It's unfair to existing businesses there who get nothing, it's generally a loser for the states and it encourages crony capitalism.