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RALEIGH — Local NASCAR fans who liked the auto racing comedy “Talladega Nights” weren’t just pulling for comedian Will Ferrell’s goofy Ricky Bobby character.

They helped pay him.

Two years after the movie’s 2006 release, a production company called High, Wide and Handsome told the state it spent more than $25 million to make the movie. According to Commerce Department records, that entitled the company to a $3.8 million tax credit.

In total, tax incentives used to lure film and television productions to North Carolina have cost the state about $44 million.

While much of that has offset production companies’ income tax liability, some has gone out the door in the form of refunds when the amount of a company’s credit is more than the amount of taxes owed.

Revenue officials could not provide a breakdown Friday.

House lawmakers gave tentative approval last week to a bill that would expand the credits offered to filmmakers as part of a grab-bag of tax breaks, including rebates for alternative energy producers and wood chipping mills. Fiscal analysts say the total cost of the package could be as much as $300 million over the next five years.

A single production can only reap $7.5 million in credits. The amount any one salary can count is capped at $1 million.

Under the House bill, the total incentive cap would be raised to $20 million and there would be no limit on the amount of salary counted toward calculating the rebate.

According to those in the business, that would let productions offset more of the costs of paying big-name stars, such as Ferrell.

“When we’re laying off teachers and shutting down mental health centers it bothers me to be spending money on this crowd,” said Robert Orr, executive director of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, a legal think tank that has actively worked against incentives policies.

“What’s particularly objectionable about the film incentive is it does not create very many permanent, local jobs.”

Film industry boosters debate that assertion, pointing to the Wilmington area that has built up a lucrative sound stage business.

Orr questioned whether anyone confirmed the money spent by film production companies.

“Every claim that comes in, all of those are audited,” N.C. Department of Revenue spokeswoman Beth Stevenson said.

Film boosters such as Jordan Kerner, dean of the film school at the UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, argue that the House bill is a move in the right direction and that the state should be doing more to lure film productions.

“You can shoot the whole year in the state ... You’ve got the mountains, the coast and the Piedmont for locations,” he said.

Those natural advantages, combined with a pool of skilled labor trained in the textile and furniture trades that could transfer their skills to building props and sets, argue strongly for the state as a movie location, he said.

Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, has pushed for the credit expansion included in the House bill. Even though the measure passed, some members of her own party expressed skepticism during the House debate last week.

“This is a really difficult issue for me, because I’m sitting over there in the Health and Human Services Appropriations subcommittee cutting Medicaid,” Rep. Verla Insko said, referring to the health insurance program for the poor.

The Chapel Hill Democrat continued, “Every time we cut Medicaid, we lose jobs. We’re also cutting rates (paid to) doctors. And every time we cut rates, we lose physicians who are willing to participate in the Medicaid program.”

The money paid for the film credits, she said, would help land more federal Medicaid dollars and pay for health care.

Other critics warn that North Carolina is getting into a race with other states to see who can offer the richest credit and that before too long, film and economic development recruiters will be pushing to expand the credit again.

Even Kerner, who supports the credit, says it does not go far enough.

He said capping the credit at $20 million means the state would be going after movies that cost about $80 million to make. That’s a price point not many studios are looking at.

The House is scheduled to vote a second time on the incentives package before sending it onto the Senate, which has crafted its own omnibus incentive bill that did not include the film credits. It’s unclear whether or how the two measures might be reconciled.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com