newsobserver.com projects - Film tax credit would lose money - Comments

Re: Film tax credit would lose money

bniolet — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:13:21 -0400

Comment deleted for inapproprite language.

Re: Film tax credit would lose money

jonoflocke — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:02:49 -0400

So if giving tax breaks to the film industry can lure jobs here, shouldn't we be giving tax breaks to all businesses?

Absolutely spot-on. These kinds of incentives deals are an admission by state policymakers that they know lower taxes would be good for this state. But here's the problem: they can't take the credit for it when low taxes attract untold numbers of businesses here.

So instead, they target one employer or industry, then they can say they're the ones responsible for bringing in all those jobs.

Meanwhile, they raise taxes on everyone else, killing or driving off who knows how many more jobs than they "created," and they do so despite the state being in double-digit unemployment.

Re: Film tax credit would lose money

bniolet — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:54:01 -0400

No offense taken. The prohibition applies to all.

Re: Film tax credit would lose money

CitizenOpinionated — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:28:02 -0400

Ben - No offense - but is funny that you instantly post something about "personal attacks" but yet Gosh is still allowed to post...

Re: Film tax credit would lose money

neo_mom — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:52:39 -0400

So if giving tax breaks to the film industry can lure jobs here, shouldn't we be giving tax breaks to all businesses?

Raleigh needs to stop picking and choosing which businesses are good enough for their special giveaways. Hollywood, Apple,... Oh wait - all those are backed by Democrats that are richer than God.

Nevermind.

Re: Let me get this straight

bniolet — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:36:09 -0400

Please refrain from personal attacks. This includes comments referring to another commenter as a "hack." -- BN

Re: Film tax credit would lose money

CitizenOpinionated — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:26:49 -0400

But PoliticalJunkie - it might or might not create jobs in the future...

I agree the money should go to the education of our kids - but serious reform needs to be done on that front as well...

We pay June Atkinson and the new "CEO of Education" - I wonder how many kids we could educate with just one of those salaries...

Let me get this straight

PoliticalJunkie — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:22:19 -0400

$25 million for the film industry.

12,000 teachers fired.

And there are Democratic Hacks like Gosh on here arguing that this is good policy? This is a good investment?

Are you insane?

How about we put our kids' education first, in more than words for once, and take that money to keep some of those teacher from losing their jobs.

Re: Film tax credit would lose money

CitizenOpinionated — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:56:49 -0400

This might be a worthwhile plan down the road, but our current state of NC's economy, in addition the looming $1.5 Billion in tax increases, I think we have more important things to "waste" our money.

Re: Film tax credit would lose money

ThomasPaine — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:52:46 -0400

This is a good investment and difficult to caclulate the true complete value for the state- as we showcase beautiful areas of North Carolina which are shown repreatedly in movie theaters and thousands of reruns on TV. Bull Durham, Last of the Mohicans, The Fugative, Richie Rich, Forest Gump, Dawsons Creek, One Tree Hill, etc. etc. etc. hundreds of productions -- all continue to promote North Carolina across American and the world on a daily basis.
Hollywood is a very trend-oriented business. If a location/state is competative financially and has a sizable local crew base, it results in instant business. In the 90's North Carolina was the 3rd largest movie producing state in the country -behind only California and New York. Vancouver BC introduced game-changing financial incentives in the late 90's which pulled much of the off-site production to Canada for a number of years. That has now changed. North Carolina- with it's incredible locations and large established permanent crew base and studios in Wilmington and Charlotte- stands poised to explode again. Its a clean industry which often goes to small towns across the state to set up locations and injects a flood of spending in rural areas which need it. This is a huge business with a huge ripple effect in ancillary jobs, tourist attraction, money sand out-of-state families moving-in and spending in North Carolina. A wise investment. We have the infrastructure. This allows us to leverage existing resources and great reputation as a film state to see the money flow in. I'm all for it.

Re: Film tax credit would lose money

domewatcher — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:18:45 -0400

When has losing money caused us to hesitate? Go for it. If we lose money on the deal we can always raise taxes and fees. We have an unlimited amount of money in this state that is just waiting to be sent to Raleigh. And plenty of good actors here too. It's a natural.

Re: Film tax credit would lose money

Gosh — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:57:55 -0400

I believe it will pay off down the road. Hollywood puts out in excess of 600 films a year no matter what. They have to film somewhere.

With the proposed additional studios, the NC filmography of only 2,000 of those films from the last century, can be doubled in a couple decades.

Film tax credit would lose money

bniolet — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:36:34 -0400

North Carolina lawmakers are pushing through a hefty increase in the tax credit for movie makers even though a study commissioned by the state film office says the state would lose money on the deal for at least two years.

The experience other states have had with film credits suggest such an incentive might not pay for itself, leading some Republicans to question giving such a tax break as the state's cash crunch puts teachers in the unemployment line.

But representatives of the film industry and North Carolina's film office say the payoff will be down the road. They argue that the tax credit will lure jobs to the state.

As a bonus, Screen Gems Studios, which already operates studios in Wilmington, has pledged to build a production studio in Charlotte if the state increases the handout to Hollywood.

The Senate on Wednesday gave final approval to legislation that would raise the film tax credit from 15 percent to 25 percent of qualifying expenditures in the state.

The bill now goes to the House. (N&O)