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A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the state’s film incentive program and efforts at the General Assembly to expand it (click here).

That expansion is embodied in H 1973. Lawmakers were still trying to patch up differences over the bill yesterday as I report in today’s newspaper story (click here), but the measure was reported in on the floors of the House and Senate late last night so it looks like we’ll see votes today.

One thing that bugged me back when I wrote my first story about the incentives was I couldn’t tell how much of the $44 million the state had issued in film credits had merely offset tax liability and how much had been sent to filmmakers as a check.

The film credit, you see, is refundable. That means if a taxpayer’s credit exceeds their tax liability, they get the excess credit back in the form of a check backed by the taxpayers of the state.

It turns out, those checks total $25 million since 2006.

Amount refunded per year:

• 2006 - $457,248
• 2007 - $8,682,998
• 2008 - $15,236,107
• 2009 - $1,329,713

None of that is to say the credit is good or bad. But if the credit is expanded, as appears likely, the amount of checks taxpayers will be writing to film producers will almost certainly go up.