With the North Carolina legislature back in session, local government officials and business organizations are watching closely the fate of certain bills during this year’s short session, which started in mid-May.

Film incentive
Extension of the state’s film tax credit is at the top of the list for several local officials. Without action, the incentive will expire at the end of 2014, sending productions to “greener” locations, said Johnny Griffin, head of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission. 

Most members of the local delegation from Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties have voiced support for keeping the incentives. Rep. Rick Catlin (R-New Hanover) said he is still undecided.

Catlin, who introduced a bill in the long session last year that would have changed the nature of the credits, continues to assess the proposals for extending the incentive, which allows production companies to claim a 25 percent credit – up to a cap of $20 million – on productions’ in-state spending of more than $250,000 in qualifying expenses.

Two conflicting accounts of the film tax credit’s economic impact have complicated the matter.

“I’ve been doing my research, and I’m still looking at the issue and options and will be interested to see the compromise the governor is coming up with,” Catlin said. “The statewide [film credit] return on investment is not as good as this area’s return on investment. There will have to be a compromise to get it passed.

The City of Wilmington and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce have called for eliminating the film production tax credit’s sunset date of Jan. 1, 2015 so that the incentive can continue to be marketed to future productions.

“I don’t know why they are trying to fix something that’s not broken,” chamber president and CEO Connie Majure-Rhett said. “My next-door neighbors have a second home in downtown Wilmington. They are planning to put it on the market if the incentive is eliminated because they rent it out to film people.”

Business privilege tax
Legislators are also taking a hard look at the business privilege tax, the tax that municipalities can levy on companies that do business within their borders.

Catlin said there are lawmakers who feel the tax rates that some cities charge – Charlotte, for example – are excessive.

One proposal is to eliminate municipalities’ ability to levy the tax. Another proposal would establish a flat rate of $100 per business – a far cry from the percentage-of-sales legislation currently on the books.

Wilmington mayor Bill Saffo sees a significant impact on the city of an elimination or reduction in the tax.

“The privilege license tax brings in about $1.6-$1.8 million annually for the City of Wilmington,” he said. “If you eliminate that from our budget, we still would have to deliver services to those businesses. It would be a big hit to the City of Wilmington.”

Residential regulation
For Business for a Sound Economy (BASE), a policy advocacy group for the Wilmington area’s commercial and residential realty industry, much of the legislative foundation was laid last year, group officials said.

Cameron Moore, BASE CEO and executive officer of Wilmington-Cape Fear Homebuilders Association, said the association is building its framework for future rounds with the. General Assembly.

Tyler Newman, BASE senior government affairs director, said the association is monitoring a number of bills during the short and long session that will require further action.

House Bill 773 overseeing residential rental inspections and regulations is currently being reviewed by the senate commerce committee, Newman said. The bill seeks to prohibit local governments from levying permits, fees and rental registration programs as a condition to operating rental housing.

“We feel this is another obstacle for rental property owners,” Moore said.

Another item winding its way through the senate rules committee is House Bill 150, a bill limiting municipality oversight over zoning ordinances related to design and aesthetic controls.

“That’s a matter that should be left to the builder or the homeowner,” Moore said. “We’ve found in some municipalities that such ordinances are overbearing and discourage development.”

Historic preservation
Meanwhile, a number of area historic preservationists and advocates are monitoring potential changes that could affect preservation tax credits.

Last year, the General Assembly announced that it was not going to renew the tax credits – forcing them to expire by Dec. 31 of this year.

A number of historic preservationists have expressed concern for the future of redevelopment in the urban core if the tax credits are forced to expire, including Saffo and George Edwards, executive director of Historic Wilmington Foundation.

“Wilmington’s central business district and historic neighborhoods have been renewed and uplifted by the use of the preservation tax credits,” Edwards said in a recent news release.

Saffo agreed with that statement, citing the number of homes and businesses in the city that have been renovated using this tax credit.

“We probably would have lost a lot of them if we had not had that credit in place,” he said.