The film industry is getting aggressive in its effort to fend off reform of the incredibly generous 25 percent refundable tax credit North Carolina currently offers. The credit will expire at the end of the year unless it is renewed or modified by the legislature. As Carolina Journal’s Rick Henderson reports, the industry is now circulating talking points that take aim at those who’ve analyzed the credit — including JLF.
Lobbyists for North Carolina’s motion-picture industry, in an attempt to preserve an expiring taxpayer subsidy for film production in the state, are circulating two “talking points” documents to lawmakers attacking the credibility of those who have questioned the figures the industry uses to tout the value of the film incentives. The industry’s targets are the labor-market experts at the state Department of Commerce, the economists at the Fiscal Research Division of the General Assembly who review the fiscal implications of pending legislation, and the John Locke Foundation, which in recent weeks published two Carolina Journal news reports evaluating the fiscal and employment impacts of the film tax credit. The film-industry talking-points documents, available here and here, employ misleading language, incorrect descriptions of film-industry jobs, and assertions that are not supported by independent sources.
I encourage you to read Rick’s entire story. The industry has an incredibly sweet deal in North Carolina, and taxpayers deserve better treatment.
