Although there still is legislation to revert the state’s film grant program back to the open-ended and likely unconstitutional refundable film tax incentives program, the state House budget does not make such a change. As Carolina Journal reports, it contains “continuation of the film and entertainment grants at $31 million.”
That would be somewhat of a relief. It’s an odd use of the word, yes, but when a very bad idea is under consideration to replace a bad idea, suddenly finding oneself not having to be more concerned than before is a kind of relief.
Unlike in previous years, the governor is not promoting this reversion. There is, however, always the possibility that the very bad idea of going back to the old film tax incentives would be inserted into the final budget on reconciliation. So that’s why this relief, such as it is, is tempered.
For a discussion of how changing the film grant program back into the old film tax incentives program would be going from a bad idea to a very bad idea, see my research brief, “We Don’t Need a Reboot of NC’s Unaccountable Film Tax Incentives.“
