AUGUSTA (AP) – “Empire Falls” author Richard Russo dusted off an old joke about two campers and a grizzly bear to illustrate his point as he made a pitch for tax incentives to lure movie makers to Maine. And Gov. John Baldacci said the punch line makes sense.

As the story goes, one of the campers started pulling on his sneakers when he noticed a grizzly outside the tent. His perplexed friend asked, “What are you doing? You know you can’t outrun a grizzly bear.”

“I don’t have to. I have to outrun you,” goes the punch line, as Russo told it.

But he said the state could become the butt of a bad joke if it doesn’t do something to compete with its neighbors to attract production companies, which spend millions of dollars on a project. Like the second camper, “We may be the last ones out of the tent,” Russo said.

Russo, a former Colby College professor whose best-selling book about life in a small New England town was adapted into a two-part HBO miniseries, met with Baldacci on Tuesday to tout state movie incentives before testifying before the Legislature’s budget-review committee.

Russo and Baldacci said the movie industry represents an economic boost for towns in Maine like those portrayed in Russo’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book.

“I loved the idea of having Paul Newman here and that wonderful cast,” Russo said as he sat in the governor’s State House office. “I was particularly glad to see … that army of people, many of them local, who were set into motion by that film.”

Newman won a Golden Globe for his supporting role as a father figure in “Empire Falls,” which also won a Globe for best miniseries or movie. Helen Hunt, Joanne Woodward, Robin Wright Penn, Ed Harris and Philip Seymour Hoffman also appeared in the film.

Legislation under review calls for reimbursement to production companies of state payroll and corporate income taxes associated with film projects in Maine. It doesn’t include what the stars earn.

The bill under consideration has a relatively meager price tag in lost revenue – $500,000 its first year – compared to the millions the state and businesses stand to gain from a movie project, supporters say. Restaurants, motels, hardware stores, lumber yards and trades are among those who benefit when a movie is shot, said Russo.

“It’s just jaw-dropping. The ripple effect is really hard to calculate,” he said.

In his State of the State speech last month, Baldacci said “Empire Falls” brought $34 million into the state’s economy. On Tuesday, he said it’s time for the state “to step up to the plate” or not play the game of enticing movie makers to Maine, a state known for its breathtaking coastal and mountain vistas, and whose license plates proclaim “Vacationland.”

But compared to the 35 other states that offer incentives, Maine offers practically nothing, according to Lea Girardin of the Maine Film Office. Its modest offering is limited to forgiveness of sales and use taxes.

Girardin she gets plenty of calls from production companies who ask what incentives the state has to offer. But right now, there are no movie projects in the works in the state, she said.

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On the Net:

Maine Film Office: www.maine.gov/decd/film/

AP-ES-02-07-06 1658EST