These are desperate times in Tallahassee. The Legislature has to deal with a shortfall of as much as $3-billion in tax revenue for the next fiscal year. Naturally the state's arts programs were among the first items on the chopping block.
House Speaker Marco Rubio, a Republican from Miami-Dade County, declared that whole departments might have to be eliminated. One of the candidates for the ax was the Division of Cultural Affairs, which administers arts funding. This marked a new extreme. Not even in the uncertain economic conditions after 9/11 did anyone suggest doing away with arts funding entirely.
The word went out last week to arts advocates, who loosed such a raging torrent of e-mails that Secretary of State Kurt Browning, whose department includes the division, said they were doing more harm than good. That sentiment was received with scorn by anyone familiar with the feverish lobbying that is par for the course when it comes to threats to funding for the arts. By necessity over the years, arts supporters have come to know their way around the corridors of power.
The calamity was averted by the end of the week, when the Florida Cultural Alliance sent out an update headlined "Your advocacy efforts saved the Division of Cultural Affairs and prevented zero recommendations for DCA funding in House.'' Still, the alliance urged vigilance for possible amendments. The House bill included about $3.5-million for arts grants, and the Senate bill was somewhat more generous at $8-million. The difference will be worked out in a House-Senate conference committee. You can track the legislation on the alliance Web site at flca.net.
You have to wonder why arts advocates even bother. In the current fiscal year, the division has $12.5-million in grants, a 61 percent cut from two years ago. We've fallen far from 1990-91, when the division gave out $19-million in grants, making Florida a leader in underwriting the arts and its peer review evaluation system a model of smart administration.
Though Florida is the fourth-largest state in population, it lacks the Fortune 500 corporations and philanthropic foundations that subsidize the arts elsewhere. As a result, cultural institutions must turn to the state for support.
But now funding has dried up because of hurricanes and the real estate meltdown, not to mention the anti-government ideology of former Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republicans.
There are more arts organizations than ever, but the public money available to help them is dramatically less than it was just a few years ago. Scapegoating the arts — which employs roughly 156,000 people in Florida, according to a study released last year by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat — is no way to strengthen the economy. It doesn't make any sense, even while acknowledging that the state has huge budget problems.
But since when did sense have anything to do with what happens in Tallahassee?
John Fleming can be reached at (727) 893-8716 or fleming@sptimes.com.
[Last modified: Apr 05, 2008 06:21 AM]
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