States should be focused on enhancing their own economic development and increasing overall tax revenue receipts. Each tax credit should have an associated business case which provides the return on investment in terms of increases in overall state tax revenue and economic development if the tax credit is provided. This should be expressed as ROI (tax revenue increase for each dollar spent on the tax credit) and monitored each year. There should be some minimum cut-off for payback that will cause the credit to be discontinued (for example $6 in tax revenue for each $1 in credit).
Tax Credit decisions should not be made to support friends of politicians, nor should they be discontinued because some religious extremists raise a fuss. Tax credits should be applied based on sound economic decisions.
Tax credits which attract new industries or external revenue to the state should be supported. Typically movie/tv, tourism, and sports tax credits meeting this criteria. Tax credits which do not attract new industry or revenue to the state should not be put into place.
In the case of North Carolina, discontinuing the Film and Preservation tax credits is immediately causing over $100M drop in state tax revenues (above and beyond the credit amount). The decision to discontinue these tax credits were made due to the demands of religious extremists, not based on sound economic policy. Now North Carolina is suffering the after-effects and the governor is desperately trying to undo the policy. The problem with the film tax credit is that all the productions have now moved to other states and it will take some time to attract them back to North Carolina.