Tea Party Kills Job Creation In North Carolina

Posted by | August 21, 2014 18:34 | Filed under: Economy News Behaving Badly Top Stories


Nice going, Tea Party! Looks like you — and hard right multimillionaire Art Pope, who has essentially bought the legislature and state house — have dealt another blow to state jobs by driving television and film production out of state!

As California moves closer to quadrupling tax incentives for film production, North Carolina is moving in the opposite direction, cutting its program this week by two-thirds. The Tar Heel state joins a growing list of those that have scaled back their incentives programs or eliminated them altogether.

Pushback from Tea Party ideologues who oppose all forms of tax incentives that favor one industry over another is largely responsible for the growing trend. That’s especially true in red states whose legislatures or state houses are dominated by fiscal conservatives — as is the case in North Carolina. “The Tea Party faction played a huge role,” said an entertainment-industry source familiar with the situation in the state. “It’s not just about film incentives; it’s about an anti-government spending philosophy across the board.”

Beginning January 1, North Carolina will replace its 25% refundable tax credit with a $10 million competitive grant program, capped at $5 million per production. Funding for the program will be cut from $60 million a year to $10 million. The MPAA had urged NC legislators to continue funding at current levels, which the trade association says was responsible for more than 12,000 jobs in the state (including more than 3,000 production jobs) and more than $538 million in wages from production and distribution-related jobs. “It’s disappointing that the new grant program included in the budget agreement will prevent North Carolina from remaining competitive in attracting this prominent source of in-state economic activity,” MPAA spokesperson Kate Bedingfield said.

Recent films and TV shows shot in the state include The Hunger Games, Iron Man 3, Tammy, Homeland, Under The Dome and Eastbound And Down.

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Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.

82 responses to Tea Party Kills Job Creation In North Carolina

  1. mea_mark August 21st, 2014 at 18:49

    I’ll bet there is still corporate welfare for Art Pope and his cronies and I bet it doesn’t create jobs, it just goes in their overseas bank accounts. TPr’s are idiots if they think these people are operating in their best interest and not scamming them.

  2. mea_mark August 21st, 2014 at 18:49

    I’ll bet there is still corporate welfare for Art Pope and his cronies and I bet it doesn’t create jobs, it just goes in their overseas bank accounts. TPr’s are idiots if they think these people are operating in their best interest and not scamming them.

  3. Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 18:50

    I thought the left didn’t like welfare for millionaires? the left has always said cutting taxes on the rich doesn’t create jobs so what’s the fuss?

    • Tommy6860 August 21st, 2014 at 18:59

      Your understanding on what this means and how tax incentives work, is painfully lacking.

      • Suzanne McFly August 21st, 2014 at 19:25

        His “understanding” for anything is painfully lacking.

      • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 20:02

        Tell me what I’m getting wrong

        • dave-dr-gonzo August 21st, 2014 at 20:44

          Let’s start with the fundamentals of economics in a representative democracy, Stimpy.

          • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 23:12

            the fundamentals of economics? the tax incentive takes water out of one side of the pond and dumps it in the other side, You’re trying to tell me that raises the water level of the pond.

            • mea_mark August 22nd, 2014 at 11:42

              Moving money to where it will be spent and kept in circulation, raises the level. When excess capital is pulled from circulation because they have more than they need and is put in savings the level decreases. Incentives are designed to keep the money in circulation, thus raising the level. It is not taking money from one side of the pond and putting it on the other. It is keeping the water in the pond and moving it, making the pond more viable

    • mea_mark August 21st, 2014 at 19:02

      Most of the people in the film industry aren’t rich. The welfare for the rich will continue, they are hurting those looking for work in their state. It is dumb selfish politics.

      • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 20:01

        The jobs are temporary, all these tax incentives do is put people on the state payroll while the production is in progress, the companies build no infrastructure and make no investment for future growth. its a scam to give rich people money

        • mea_mark August 21st, 2014 at 20:21

          Tell that to the hotel and motel chains and all the people that are unemployed and at least find temporary work. You really don’t get it, do you? The money spent stays in the economy strengthening it.

          • OldLefty August 21st, 2014 at 20:57

            Plus, because of the money, those people now can afford to get the new refrigerator,car, or even pizza and a movie once a week, which stimulates the economy and creates more jobs.

          • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 23:08

            And when the production leaves? where are those jobs?

            • cecilia August 22nd, 2014 at 18:03

              other productions arrive…….NC was once known as a good location for films. Beautiful country, nice towns…local color and all that.

              If the teabaggers prevent production companies from even Considering NC as a Location, then all that money dries up and goes elsewhere

              • Red Eye Robot August 22nd, 2014 at 19:20

                NC says film your movie here and we’ll give you money to spend here. In order to give that money away they have to take it from business’s & tax payers ALREADY doing business and paying taxes in NC.Taking Dollar$ from NC Schools, NC law enforcement, NC roads. etc etc. If the state gives a production company 25% of the cost to make a movie shouldn’t the state receive an equal percentage of the movies gross? The hunger games made $681 million. Shouldn’t NC get about $170 million of that?

                many blockbuster films were made in NC before the 2012 tax credit law was passed:
                Blue Velvet,
                Bull Durham,
                Cold Mountain,
                The Color Purple,
                Dirty Dancing,
                Forest Gump,
                The Green Mile,
                The Hunt For Red October,
                The Last of the Mohicans,
                Sleeping with the enemy.
                Seems like NC had no trouble attracting movie productions before they started giving tax payer dollars to rich people

        • dave-dr-gonzo August 21st, 2014 at 20:43

          No. Resourceful and entrepreneurial production houses are able to weather waxing and waning business cycles. There would be more of these permanent production houses were it not for the Tea Party thugs.

        • tiredoftea August 21st, 2014 at 21:35

          Cumulatively no. The money is directly spent in state for the local services. But, yes, there are no infrastructure investments over and above whatever the state is already doing. Which is not much in any event.

          But, you don’t support that anyway, so it’s all good to you, right?

    • edmeyer_able August 21st, 2014 at 19:13

      The programs they are cutting have had a direct effect on creating work in the industry they were given. Unlike the cutting of corporate taxes given to companies that have moved factories overseas.

      • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 19:57

        Like Solyndra? Fiskars? Or like Delphi who the Obama admin helped move their corporate headquarters to Europe with $1.7 BILLION US tax dollars saving them $110 million a year in taxes?

        • edmeyer_able August 21st, 2014 at 20:14

          When were the laws that gave that gave those breaks to the companies you listed enacted and who has been the Speaker since 2011.

          • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 23:06

            solyndra was part of the 2009 american recovery and investment act Nancy Pelosi was speaker

            • Obewon August 21st, 2014 at 23:58

              Bullshit! Solyndra was cleared to participate in this loan-guarantee program by President George W. Bush’s administration. He also did not mention that the legislation creating the loan-guarantee program, approved by the Republican-controlled Congress in 2005, received yes votes from — wait for it — DeMint, Hatch and McConnell.

              “Loan guarantees aim to stimulate investment and commercialization of clean energy technologies to reduce our nation’s reliance on foreign sources of energy,” Bush’s energy secretary, Sam Bodman, announced in a press release on Oct. 4, 2007. http://www.alan.com/2011/09/28/whose-baby-is-solyndra/

              So much for finger in your eye radio actually telling you something accurate. Gutfeld & The Five admit the’re all alcoholics with only Bob Beckel in recovery.

        • dave-dr-gonzo August 21st, 2014 at 20:41

          Solyndra — which was HEAVILY backed by GOP lobbyists, BTW – is irrelevant to this thread, Sparky. And according to that commie rag the Wall Street Journal, the Obama administration tried nto dissuade Delphi from moving, and in fact di not help them move.

          You must love being lied to by hate radio hosts, Skippy.

          • Anomaly 100 August 21st, 2014 at 22:28

            Solyndra is interchangeable with Benghazi.

          • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 23:02

            yeah, they tried to dissuade them with $1.7 billion dollars

        • edmeyer_able August 21st, 2014 at 20:46

          Your probably thinking of Sensata the company owned by Mit in 2012.

      • Always Right August 21st, 2014 at 22:07

        It is corporate welfare. The leadership made a fiscal decision. http://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/04/07/new-report-says-film-study-wrong-nc-loses-money-incentives

    • tiredoftea August 21st, 2014 at 21:31

      So, taking you at your word, supposedly, these incentives bring blue and white collar jobs to the state. Carpenters, catering companies, local actors, drivers and other assorted support positions that location filming produces.

  4. Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 18:50

    I thought the left didn’t like welfare for millionaires? the left has always said cutting taxes on the rich doesn’t create jobs so what’s the fuss?

    • Tommy6860 August 21st, 2014 at 18:59

      Your understanding on what this means and how tax incentives work, is painfully lacking.

      • Suzanne McFly August 21st, 2014 at 19:25

        His “understanding” for anything is painfully lacking.

      • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 20:02

        Tell me what I’m getting wrong

        • dave-dr-gonzo August 21st, 2014 at 20:44

          Let’s start with the fundamentals of economics in a representative democracy, Stimpy.

          • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 23:12

            the fundamentals of economics? the tax incentive takes water out of one side of the pond and dumps it in the other side, You’re trying to tell me that raises the water level of the pond.

            • mea_mark August 22nd, 2014 at 11:42

              Moving money to where it will be spent and kept in circulation, raises the level. When excess capital is pulled from circulation because they have more than they need and is put in savings the level decreases. Incentives are designed to keep the money in circulation, thus raising the level. It is not taking money from one side of the pond and putting it on the other. It is keeping the water in the pond and moving it, making the pond more viable

    • mea_mark August 21st, 2014 at 19:02

      Most of the people in the film industry aren’t rich. The welfare for the rich will continue, they are hurting those looking for work in their state. It is dumb selfish politics.

      • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 20:01

        The jobs are temporary, all these tax incentives do is put people on the state payroll while the production is in progress, the companies build no infrastructure and make no investment for future growth. its a scam to give rich people money

        • mea_mark August 21st, 2014 at 20:21

          Tell that to the hotel and motel chains and all the people that are unemployed and at least find temporary work. You really don’t get it, do you? The money spent stays in the economy strengthening it.

          • OldLefty August 21st, 2014 at 20:57

            Plus, because of the money, those people now can afford to get the new refrigerator,car, or even pizza and a movie once a week, which stimulates the economy and creates more jobs.

          • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 23:08

            And when the production leaves? where are those jobs?

            • cecilia August 22nd, 2014 at 18:03

              other productions arrive…….NC was once known as a good location for films. Beautiful country, nice towns…local color and all that.

              If the teabaggers prevent production companies from even Considering NC as a Location, then all that money dries up and goes elsewhere

              • Red Eye Robot August 22nd, 2014 at 19:20

                NC says film your movie here and we’ll give you money to spend here. In order to give that money away they have to take it from business’s & tax payers ALREADY doing business and paying taxes in NC.Taking Dollar$ from NC Schools, NC law enforcement, NC roads. etc etc. If the state gives a production company 25% of the cost to make a movie shouldn’t the state receive an equal percentage of the movies gross? The hunger games made $681 million. Shouldn’t NC get about $170 million of that?

                many blockbuster films were made in NC before the 2012 tax credit law was passed:
                Blue Velvet,
                Bull Durham,
                Cold Mountain,
                The Color Purple,
                Dirty Dancing,
                Forest Gump,
                The Green Mile,
                The Hunt For Red October,
                The Last of the Mohicans,
                Sleeping with the enemy.
                Seems like NC had no trouble attracting movie productions before they started giving tax payer dollars to rich people

        • dave-dr-gonzo August 21st, 2014 at 20:43

          No. Resourceful and entrepreneurial production houses are able to weather waxing and waning business cycles. There would be more of these permanent production houses were it not for the Tea Party thugs.

        • tiredoftea August 21st, 2014 at 21:35

          Cumulatively no. The money is directly spent in state for the local services. But, yes, there are no infrastructure investments over and above whatever the state is already doing. Which is not much in any event.

          But, you don’t support that anyway, so it’s all good to you, right?

    • edmeyer_able August 21st, 2014 at 19:13

      The programs they are cutting have had a direct effect on creating work in the industry they were given. Unlike the cutting of corporate taxes given to companies that have moved factories overseas.

      • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 19:57

        Like Solyndra? Fiskars? Or like Delphi who the Obama admin helped move their corporate headquarters to Europe with $1.7 BILLION US tax dollars saving them $110 million a year in taxes?

        • edmeyer_able August 21st, 2014 at 20:14

          When were the laws that gave that gave those breaks to the companies you listed enacted and who has been the Speaker since 2011.

          • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 23:06

            solyndra was part of the 2009 american recovery and investment act Nancy Pelosi was speaker

            • Obewon August 21st, 2014 at 23:58

              Bullshit! Solyndra was cleared to participate in this loan-guarantee program by President George W. Bush’s administration. Ditch Mitch-McConnell also did not mention that the legislation creating the loan-guarantee program, was approved by the Republican-controlled Congress in 2005, received yes votes from — wait for it — DeMint, Hatch and turtlehead McConnell!

              “Loan guarantees aim to stimulate investment and commercialization of clean energy technologies to reduce our nation’s reliance on foreign sources of energy,” Bush’s energy secretary, Sam Bodman, announced in a press release on Oct. 4, 2007. http://www.alan.com/2011/09/28/whose-baby-is-solyndra/ (The $100 B loan guarantees included a $10 B reserve against losses & has +$9.5 B remaining:)

              So much for finger in your eye radio actually telling you something accurate. Red Eye’s Gutfeld primarily of the The Five each separately admitted the’re all angry alcoholics with only Bob Beckel in recovery.

        • dave-dr-gonzo August 21st, 2014 at 20:41

          Solyndra — which was HEAVILY backed by GOP lobbyists, BTW – is irrelevant to this thread, Sparky. And according to that commie rag the Wall Street Journal, the Obama administration tried nto dissuade Delphi from moving, and in fact di not help them move.

          You must love being lied to by hate radio hosts, Skippy.

          • Anomaly 100 August 21st, 2014 at 22:28

            Solyndra is interchangeable with Benghazi.

          • Red Eye Robot August 21st, 2014 at 23:02

            yeah, they tried to dissuade them with $1.7 billion dollars

        • edmeyer_able August 21st, 2014 at 20:46

          You’re probably thinking of Sensata the company owned by Mit in 2012.

      • Always Right August 21st, 2014 at 22:07

        It is corporate welfare. The leadership made a fiscal decision. http://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/04/07/new-report-says-film-study-wrong-nc-loses-money-incentives

    • tiredoftea August 21st, 2014 at 21:31

      So, taking you at your word, supposedly, these incentives bring blue and white collar jobs to the state. Carpenters, catering companies, local actors, drivers and other assorted support positions that location filming produces.

  5. RK Johnston August 21st, 2014 at 18:56

    Well, that one less worry for Hollyweird–BELAY THAT–Hollywood!
    –RKJ

  6. RK Johnston August 21st, 2014 at 18:56

    Well, that one less worry for Hollyweird–BELAY THAT–Hollywood!
    –RKJ

  7. Always Right August 21st, 2014 at 22:08

    It is a money loser. http://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/04/07/new-report-says-film-study-wrong-nc-loses-money-incentives

  8. Always Right August 21st, 2014 at 22:08

    It is a money loser. http://www.wwaytv3.com/2014/04/07/new-report-says-film-study-wrong-nc-loses-money-incentives

  9. Obewon August 21st, 2014 at 23:46

    In Teabonics never assume mathematical literacy! A ten-fold Return On Investment via more than $538 million in TAXABLE wages from 12,000 production and distribution-related jobs from a puny $60 million a year ITC.

    Meanwhile the Koch bros. founded & funded Tea Klan can’t explain why they don’t deride BIG Oil’s 102% Average tax credits for the wealthiest & most profitable corps in human history~!

    • Bobby August 22nd, 2014 at 10:01

      Corps. don’t pay taxes people do. If you raise there taxes they raise the price of there goods or services. So in the end It is we the people that pay 100% of taxes,

      • cecilia August 22nd, 2014 at 17:56

        corporations are people or haven’t you heard :)

      • Obewon August 22nd, 2014 at 18:00

        U.S. Corps that pay U. S. federal income taxes average 12%, near the bottom for developed nations.

        While all U.S. wages paid total just 7% of U.S. record $14.2 T GDP = 7 cents per each $1 in gross sales.

  10. Obewon August 21st, 2014 at 23:46

    In Teabonics never assume mathematical literacy! A ten-fold Return On Investment via more than $538 million in TAXABLE wages from 12,000 production and distribution-related jobs from a puny $60 million a year ITC is remarkably successful!

    Meanwhile the Koch bros. founded & funded Tea Klan can’t explain why they don’t deride BIG Oil’s 102% Average annual tax credits gifting $60 B+ yearly for the wealthiest & most profitable corps in human history~! Oil Corps rarely if ever pay any Net U.S. Federal income taxes.

    • Bobby August 22nd, 2014 at 10:01

      Corps. don’t pay taxes people do. If you raise there taxes they raise the price of there goods or services. So in the end It is we the people that pay 100% of taxes,

      • cecilia August 22nd, 2014 at 17:56

        corporations are people or haven’t you heard :)

      • Obewon August 22nd, 2014 at 18:00

        U.S. Corps that pay U. S. federal income taxes average 12%, near the bottom for developed nations.

        While all U.S. wages paid total just 7% of U.S. record $14.2 T GDP = 7 cents per each $1 in gross sales.

  11. Thomas Eure August 22nd, 2014 at 02:50

    Everyone in this discussion should watch Foster Gamble’s “Thrive”. It’s free on http://www.thrivemovement.com The first part is far out and if you are not familiar with Tesla and the Torus just skip it. The second and third parts reveal what is really going on in the world. You can watch it on your computer or hook up with an HDMI cable and see it on TV. Our government has now officially been changed from a democracy to an oligarchy and this DVD explains it all. Also if you haven’t read the “Georgia Guidestones” you’re missing the agenda of the super rich.

  12. Thomas Eure August 22nd, 2014 at 02:50

    Everyone in this discussion should watch Foster Gamble’s “Thrive”. It’s free on http://www.thrivemovement.com The first part is far out and if you are not familiar with Tesla and the Torus just skip it. The second and third parts reveal what is really going on in the world. You can watch it on your computer or hook up with an HDMI cable and see it on TV. Our government has now officially been changed from a democracy to an oligarchy and this DVD explains it all. Also if you haven’t read the “Georgia Guidestones” you’re missing the agenda of the super rich.

  13. Dave Lanson August 22nd, 2014 at 05:47

    That’s no big loss to the TV and movie industry. Other states have trailer parks and Ku Klux Klan rallies to film.

  14. Dave Lanson August 22nd, 2014 at 05:47

    That’s no big loss to the TV and movie industry. Other states have trailer parks and Ku Klux Klan rallies to film.

  15. Dave August 22nd, 2014 at 11:44

    So if they’re against these tax breaks, when are they going to go after Duke Energy?…..Oh that’s right, they give them so much money that Duke is now exempt. What a bunch of hypocrites!

  16. Dave August 22nd, 2014 at 11:44

    So if they’re against these tax breaks, when are they going to go after Duke Energy?…..Oh that’s right, they give them so much money that Duke is now exempt. What a bunch of hypocrites!

  17. Concerned50 August 23rd, 2014 at 00:09

    Good Job North Carolina Legislature… you finally got it right. State tax rate cuts do not create jobs, (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/03/25/1769981/state-level-tax-cuts-dont-boost-job-growth-study-says/)
    as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has shown
    (http://www.offthechartsblog.org/big-cuts-in-state-income-taxes-arent-a-ticket-to-stronger-growth/).

    Neither do specific tax incentive
    programs: “there is no conclusive evidence from research studies conducted
    since the mid-1950s to show that business tax incentives create net economic
    gains…[or] have an impact on business location and expansion decisions,”
    experts Marilyn Rubin and Donald Boyd wrote in a report (http://www.capitalnewyork.com/sites/default/files/131115__Incentive_Study_Final_0.pdf) for New York state legislators. Most states
    fail to adequately calculate the actual impact of their tax incentive programs
    on business decisions and net economic growth, according to a Pew Center on the
    States report
    (http://www.pewstates.org/uploadedFiles/PCS_Assets/2012/015_12_RI%20Tax%20Incentives%20Report_EXEC_SUMM_web.pdf),
    but one report (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jors.12031/abstract) last spring found that manufacturing tax
    credits in 20 different states had approximately zero effect (http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/corporate-extortion-states-are-giving-billions-corporations) on
    growth in the targeted industries.

  18. Concerned50 August 23rd, 2014 at 00:09

    Good Job North Carolina Legislature… you finally got it right. State tax rate cuts do not create jobs, (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/03/25/1769981/state-level-tax-cuts-dont-boost-job-growth-study-says/)
    as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has shown
    (http://www.offthechartsblog.org/big-cuts-in-state-income-taxes-arent-a-ticket-to-stronger-growth/).

    Neither do specific tax incentive
    programs: “there is no conclusive evidence from research studies conducted
    since the mid-1950s to show that business tax incentives create net economic
    gains…[or] have an impact on business location and expansion decisions,”
    experts Marilyn Rubin and Donald Boyd wrote in a report (http://www.capitalnewyork.com/sites/default/files/131115__Incentive_Study_Final_0.pdf) for New York state legislators. Most states
    fail to adequately calculate the actual impact of their tax incentive programs
    on business decisions and net economic growth, according to a Pew Center on the
    States report
    (http://www.pewstates.org/uploadedFiles/PCS_Assets/2012/015_12_RI%20Tax%20Incentives%20Report_EXEC_SUMM_web.pdf),
    but one report (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jors.12031/abstract) last spring found that manufacturing tax
    credits in 20 different states had approximately zero effect (http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/corporate-extortion-states-are-giving-billions-corporations) on
    growth in the targeted industries.

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