Film industry flickering in NC

One of the gaffes, of many, by the Republican-led General Assembly was the utterly dumb idea of doing away with a tax incentive program that paid out $80.7 million to filmmakers in 2014. The filming of movies, television shows, commercials and other related projects (“Talladega Nights,” “Homeland,” “The Hunger Games”) had brought tens of thousands of jobs to the state and millions of dollars to merchants in places where films were made.

The notion of filming in North Carolina was spurred by Thom Mount, a Durham native and former head of Universal Studios who as an independent producer made “Bull Durham” in his home town. Mount encouraged then-Gov. Jim Hunt to go after the industry, and thanks to a later tax incentive program, North Carolina reaped rewards in money and attention. But Republicans, some of them anyway, bought the notion that the state shouldn’t be giving incentives, apparently believing filmmakers would come to North Carolina anyway. End of the program. And end of the film industry in North Carolina, pretty much.

Now a grant program, and a refund to production companies of part of their in-state production expenses, is helping, but not enough. The film tax incentive program needs to be restored in full, and only then will Wilmington and other sites where film producers did big business again see the kind of business they once did. Republicans should undo the damage they did.

This story was originally published October 24, 2017 at 10:20 AM with the headline "Film industry flickering in NC."