Here It Is, Your Moment of Spite

Pat McCrory takes a gratuitous swipe at Jon Stewart & Co.

It looks like North Carolina’s legislature, having to make a series of “tough decisions” (to use one of Gov. McCrory’s favorite terms) caused mainly by their own insistence last year on massive tax cuts, may allow the state’s 25 percent film incentive to expire at year’s end.

Bummer. It’s been fun to see Homeland filmed in Charlotte and Dawson’s Creek filmed in Wilmington, among countless others. But I guess it’s time for a new strategy, as the governor expressed Wednesday as he unveiled his 2014-15 budget proposal:

We are also revising our film strategy in order to encourage long-term investments versus short-term projects with short-term returns. We think a better long-term strategy will benefit both the industry and also save tax dollars while also creating long-term jobs with long-term capital projects.

Um … OK. That’s a head-scratcher. Entertainment isn’t textiles or auto manufacturing. Film and TV are by definition “short-term project” deals.

Sure, we have a few studios scattered throughout the state. But producers aren’t coming to North Carolina for studio space. They’re coming for gorgeous scenery in the mountains and on the Outer Banks, and because the economics, including the tax credit, make the investment worth it. Want to offer tax credits for people who want to open studios, too? Fine. But why can’t the state do both?

Then McCrory let something slip during the Q&A session (from the N&O):

He specifically mentioned “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” which claimed about $273,000 back in spending credits after filming shows in North Carolina for a few days during the Democratic National Convention in 2012. “That was money right out of our budget that we could have given to teachers,” McCrory said during a news conference unveiling his budget.

Right. That’s also $1.1 million that Hello Doggie Inc., The Daily Show’s production company, could have saved by staying in New York but chose instead to spend in North Carolina.

McCrory’s singling out of TDS is a bit curious. The N.C. Film Office publishes the records of production companies’ investments and tax credits. If the governor wanted to highlight 2012 tax credits that deprived teachers of even more cash, he could have cited HBO’s Eastbound & Down (credit amount $4.7 million), or the WWE’s Raw and SmackDown shows ($446,688) or even that Diet Mountain Dew commercial with Dale Earnhardt Jr. ($330,938).

So why pick on The Daily Show?

This wouldn’t have anything to do with it, would it?

Or would it?