The Winston-Salem Journal is reporting today that the city of Greensboro is loaning $300,000 to Black Network Television, a local station, to help fund production of a new sitcom.  The thinking?  A successful sitcom produced in Greensboro will create jobs, raise the profile of the city, and possibly attract other television and film production.

Producing a television show is expensive.  I understand that the station may need a loan.  But we have these things called banks.  There are lots of them, and one of the things they specialize in is making loans.  They’re pretty good at the whole loan thing because, unlike the government, they can’t just raise taxes to make up any lost cash.  No, they have to worry about whether the business plan makes sense and the sitcom (or whatever other endeavor they loan money to support) will actually work.

If this sitcom is a good idea and likely to be a successful, money-making venture, then there’s plenty of private money out there to support it, but the government shouldn’t be involved.  The problems are the same as those we’ve seen over and over again with film incentives at the state level.  It should not be the state of North Carolina or the city of Greensboro’s role to use taxpayers’ money to attempt to pick winners in this way.