Embracing the Arts: States are recognizing that arts and culture enhance the quality of life, attracting tourists and workers and bolstering their economies over the long haul.

• Author: Griffin, Kelley

The 1972 movie "Deliverance," about a backwoods river trip gone terribly wrong, changed Georgia's economy forever. It proved such a tourist draw and moneymaker for local communities that then-Gov. Jimmy Carter created a film commission to entice other moviemakers to the state.

Fast forward 40 years and the production of films, music videos, video games and all related businesses reigns as one of Georgia's biggest industries. The state has been the site of Spider-Man's New York, Black Panther's Wakanda, a zombie-infested America in "The Walking Dead" and a small Indiana town for "Stranger Things."

Welcome to what some have dubbed "Y'allywood."

Peach State an Early Leader

Georgia's film industry even managed to nearly double its revenue during the pandemic to $4.4 million in fiscal 2021 compared with the year before. And mat was when the rest of the arts and culture sector was reeling from bigger losses than most other parts of the economy.

"In the early '70s, we created an entire industry, Whitewater rafting, on the back of a little movie called 'Deliverance,'" recalls Rep. Ron Stephens, a Savannah Republican. "Then we had the folks in little Covington, Ga., (who) came and testified that 75% of all the tourism dollars that come through Covington was from folks wanting to come see where 'The Dukes of Hazzard' was made, where 'In the Heat of the Night' was made. And same story goes on and on."

Stephens recognized the industry's potential in 2008 by sponsoring the state's first entertainment-sector tax incentives.

Georgia lawmakers have supported generous incentives ever since, even during economic downturns. Filmmakers flocked to Georgia as its incentives outstripped those in every other state, and support services have sprung up, helping to create some 75,000 jobs. Stephens notes actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry has built an $800 million studio complex in Atlanta, and one area where studios are concentrated has its own Home Depot store, open only to film projects.

Georgia is famous for not limiting how much it will set aside for the industry. In fact, a bill to cap the total available tax incentives at $900 million annually was offered in March this year--and killed the very next day.

"Why would you cap prosperity?" Stephens asks.

Arts Sector Outpaces Others

Not all arts are the juggernaut filmmaking has proven to be for Georgia. But more and more, states are recognizing that creative industries have an outsize economic impact. The National...