film tax credits

Imagine you’ve been given the task to argue that an industry needs government support to survive. How do you think you’d make that case? Would you: Start by calling the…

Since 2005, North Carolina has provided over $404 million in subsidies (tax credits and grant payments) to film production companies. The thinking is that incentivizing film productions grows an industry,…

Gov. Roy Cooper opposes corporate tax cuts and giveaways. At least publicly. In his 2017 State of the State address, he made them sound like an occult ritual: “We…

A bill filed in the General Assembly would bring back North Carolina’s unaccountable film tax incentives. The incentives had sunset in 2014 and been replaced by a grant program, which…

Have you ever seen the movie “Dave”? It’s a warm-hearted little comedy from 1993 about a man (Dave, played by Kevin Kline) who runs a temporary employment agency and has…

Time Magazine’s Aug. 6 special issue focuses on the American South. One of the articles is about Georgia’s film production incentives, entitled “How Georgia Became the Hollywood of the…

New research from Kennesaw State University economist John Charles Bradbury finds “little evidence” that movie production incentives help state economies. Bradbury’s research finds that film incentives help film production…

The proposed new state budget would not expand the state’s overall film grant program this year. That’s the good news. The bad news is, the new state budget…

In 1992, Louisiana became the first state in the nation to offer incentives for film productions. At first, few states bothered to adopt similar giveaways. The 2000s saw a flurry…