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There’s an interesting story with a North Carolina angle in the Los Angeles Times today about tax credits that states offer film production companies. From the story:

Nearly 95 miles to the west in the state capital of Lansing, lawmakers are wrestling with how to bridge a $2.7-billion budget gap -- and whether a state with the highest unemployment rate in the nation can afford to subsidize the movie business. The budget woes have hit cities across the state and have forced the layoffs of thousands of Michigan police officers and firefighters in recent years.

"We are still not sure what exactly our tax dollars are being spent on with these films," said Republican state Sen. Mark Jansen, who backs a bill that would reduce and cap how much the state could hand out in filmmaker incentives each year. "If we don't know that, how can we justify it?"

The debate in Michigan echoes around the country, from Wisconsin to Iowa to Connecticut. More than 40 states offer tax breaks or rebates for film and television production, a major contributor to the sharp falloff in industry employment in Southern California.

But as those subsidies have become increasingly generous and widespread, several states are having second thoughts. Even as some states, including Louisiana and North Carolina, expand film incentives, others are rethinking their programs in the face of budget crises.

Click here for the whole thing. And click here for a nifty map of the 40 states that offer tax credits and what those credits are. (The link for NC is here.)

As mentioned in that excerpt, North Carolina recently expanded its film credit offering, offering a rebate of up to 25 percent of the qualifying expenses a production company spends here if that spending is higher than $250,000. (News release || AP Story).

This was not a bill signing that Perdue was at all abashed about. She was still stinging from being on her way to announce a new film production in eastern North Carolina when it slipped through the state's hands. From the AP story:

Perdue had started traveling to Wilmington in April to announce the $17 million movie would be filmed in North Carolina when officials in Georgia, which offers a credit of up to 30 percent, stepped in.

"The money and the bottom line are richer for Disney," Perdue said. "This is a business. They go where the money is."