NC film tax credits: Still unpopular with GOP, still not in the state budget

Restoring North Carolina's film tax credit program has been a pet project of some Democratic politicians and film industry workers – especially on the coast, where several major films and shows have been shot – for several years now.

The state used to offer large tax breaks to productions who filmed here. The Hunger Games, Iron Man 3 and One Tree Hill were just some of the major movies and TV shows filmed in North Carolina under that program.

Republican politicians cut the program several years ago, however, decrying it as a government hand-out to Hollywood special interests. They replaced it with a significantly scaled-down grant program.

Democrats want to bring back the tax credit program, saying it created jobs here and also boosted North Carolina's reputation and tourism industry.

Cooper had laid out a plan for bringing back a smaller version of the program than what had existed before it went to the chopping block in 2014.

However, in the budget that Republican lawmakers recently passed, which covers state spending through June 2019, Cooper's film tax credit plan was nowhere to be found. Instead, the budget kept the same Republican-backed program that has been in place the last several years.

In addition to allocating the money in different ways, the GOP grant program will spend $45 million over the next two years, compared to the $60 million Cooper suggested in his tax credit plan.

This is a highly political topic, and at this point it appears Cooper's argument doesn't hold enough sway to win the day. We rate this promise Stalled.