Maryland Bid to Keep ‘House of Cards’ Could Hit Arts Funds

Maryland legislators seeking to keep the popular Web television series House of Cards filming in the state have authorized dipping into a $2.5-million culture fund to beef up tax credits for film and TV production, The Baltimore Sun writes.

Under the state budget approved Saturday, economic-development officials can draw on the Special Fund for the Preservation of Cultural Arts, a grant pot created in 2009 to support arts nonprofits, to provide extra credits for Netflix’s House of Cards, the HBO comedy Veep, and other Maryland-based Hollywood productions.

Maryland arts advocates expressed disappointment with the move, but supporters said House of Cards has contributed thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to the state’s economy in two years of filming. The show’s production company had threatened to pull out of the state over a reduction in the level of state support.

“You have to make decisions and sometimes the choices aren’t what you would like,” said state Sen. James DeGrange Sr.