Sometimes a gift comes your way that you didn’t see coming. Such is the case for Georgia as North Carolina’s legislature decides to drop their movie tax credits, a move that will almost surely benefit the booming film industry here in Georgia.
In a move that was driven by a strong Tea Party presence, the North Carolina legislature let expire a 25% film tax credit that has generated over $300 million in revenue this year alone and replaced it with a $40 million grant. This would seem to be a stunning move since the industry claims to provide over 4,000 jobs to the state. Clearly Georgia stands poised to gain from North Carolina’s short sighted loss. Over the last three decades North Carolina has seen over 800 productions filmed inside its borders, including “The Hunger Games” and “Iron Man 3”, two of the largest grossing film series of all time. Several industry insiders are clear that producers will vacate the state as the incentive program evaporates. “It’s a shame,” said Chris Cates, president of the 15-year-old C3 Studios in Charlotte, “We built up a crew base and the state has a lot of attributes.” Cates was interviewed by Variety Magazine, a Hollywood staple of entertainment news for decades. Cates says that he is considering moving the fifteen miles into South Carolina but the crew base is less appealing and the major cities there don’t offer the same variety that North Carolina has for filming.
So Georgia now stands smiling and waving to the industry that seemingly appears to have been kicked out of its mountain home. In fiscal 2014 alone Georgia claims $5.1 billion of economic impact with 158 productions spending $1.4 billion during that time. And jobs? How about over 23,000 directly employed by the industry! 2014 Georgia projects include “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 &2,” “Insurgent,” “Taken 3,” “Fast and Furious 7,” “The Walking Dead,” and “The Vampire Diaries.” Most of these are household names already. It goes without saying that Georgia has benefitted from its tax credit which offers a total of 30% for any film or entertainment production performed in the state. The first 20% of the tax credit goes to anyone spending $500,000.00 or more on production and post- production either projects. The state then offers another 10% to the project if it includes the Georgia promotional logo provided by the state. You’ve seen the logo at the end of a movie. It’s a peach of a logo!
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory is under intense pressure to call a special legislative session to try and save the tax incentive along with several other imperiled incentive programs that are now on life support.
Georgia should be proud of their legislature and governor for seeing the opportunity years ago to craft legislation that supplies jobs and recognition to the state. These days it’s hard to find “the next big thing” and I’m betting North Carolina is going to wish they had not been so short sighted. There is always a limit to what incentives a government should offer to industries to relocate to their states but to basically show them the door once they are there seems to insure that they never return.
