Over the weekend, Tillis and Berger decided it was a great idea to put the grant program in place. It was hard bill to swallow with just $20 million in the fund as discussed earlier in the short session. But now they have slashed it in half to a mere $10 million. $10 million? It is beyond an insult.

Although, the two top leaders say that the $21.3 billion budget deal is complete except for some proofreading, it has NOT yet been signed into law. The House and the Senate still have to vote on it. Most of the media have failed to say that part. Let me repeat: IT IS NOT OVER YET!

There is STILL a chance they could still extend the film incentives. And we need your help to get that message across. We need polite and calm voices to call. Don’t give them the opportunity to call us a “crazy, angry mob from the film industry!”

UPDATE 07/30/2014 9:45am: HB 1224 will now go to the floor of the House and then on to a Conference Committee – So, we need to POLITELY keep the pressure on!

We need your help telling them this:

“HB 1224 is an incentives bill. Include a one year extension of the current film incentives in that bill and include a study of your own on how film impacts the state.

The most recent STATE report regarding NC Film which included $268M that was spent here in NC in 2014.

The $10M grant program WILL NOT work and will push away our current shows as well as new productions to other states.

We hope that you do the right thing.”

PLEASE CALL OR EMAIL NOW!

Speaker Thom Tillis

PHONE: 919-733-3451

EMAIL: Thom.Tillis@ncleg.net

TWITTER: @ThomTillis

Sen. Phil Berger (President Pro Tempore)

PHONE: 919-733-5708

EMAIL: Phil.Berger@ncleg.net

FYI: Let’s take a look at what some recent productions spent and what they got back in 2013 and see just how many film crews we can sustain with a $10M grant in place.

Revolution Spent: $57.1M Credit: $14.3M

East Bound & Down Spent: 20.8M Credit: $5.2M

Under the Dome Spent: 33.4M Credit: $8.3M

Banshee Spent: 67.4M Credit: $16.8M

Tammy Spent: 14.5M Credit: $3.6M

Yes, don’t forget, this is not a Wilmington issue, it is a STATE issue. We have so many productions across our state right now.

All will be affected.

And finally your musical motivation for the day: