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Obama's
Budget A Mixed Bag For Arts and Culture (2/2/2010)
- If Monday's White House budget proposal tells us anything,
it's this: These are tough fiscal times for an arts-loving
president. Should the Obama administration get its way,
funding for the nation's major arts and cultural institutions
will stay largely flat, although a few organizations --
including the Smithsonian Institution and the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting -- will see increases over what
the president requested last year.
In
general, arts organizations seemed grateful that things
didn't turn out worse.
"These
are numbers that we're happy with," said John Dow,
a spokesman for the Kennedy Center. While the Kennedy
Center saw a slight decrease in funding requested by
the president, from $39.95 million in fiscal year 2010
to $37.42 million in 2011, that decrease was in money
for capital repair and restoration, a figure that fluctuates
from year to year depending on what projects are undertaken.
Excluding repairs, the money allocated to operations
and maintenance, $23.5 million, represents an increase
of $1 million over the amount requested last year, in
line with inflation.
Similarly,
administrators at the Institute of Museum and Library
Services, which supports organizations around the country,
were gratified that their budget request of almost $266
million was virtually the same as last year's. And given
that "in recent months museums all across the country
have stepped up to provide social and public services
that local governments are no longer able to provide,"
said Ford Bell, president of the American Association
of Museums, he was, yes, "relieved." Read
the complete Washington Post article here.
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Mid-year
budget revisions impact Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
grantees
(1/19/2010) - Last week Governor Rendell announced mid-year
revisions to the FY09-10 state budget that was passed
last October. At a press conference in December, the Governor
announced that he would reduce state spending by approximately
$162 million due to a shortfall in state revenues. The
details of that reduction are now available. The Pennsylvania
Council on the Arts (PCA) revised budget includes a freeze/reduction
of $1 million in state arts grants and $10,000 to their
administrative line item.
The PCA was not the only agency affected by the freeze
on spending. Every line item in the state budget was reduced
by at least 1 percent and 32 line items were eliminated
including state funding for zoos, regional history centers,
regional community colleges services, and rural cancer
outreach. Additionally, major cuts were made to the line
items for public television station grants, libraries,
and the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission.
With this budget revision comes a revision to each grant
processed by the PCA. The PCA Council is expected to meet
as soon as it can be convened to determine how grants
will be affected by the freeze. It is likely that this
will not be possible before early February. The Greater
Pittsburgh Arts Council advises all PCA grantees to be
prepared to receive at least a 15% reduction to your grant
award amount. We are also suggesting that you contact
Governor Rendell to tell him that it is important to you
that, once the tax revenue situation improves, funding
will be restored to the PCA arts grants and administrative
line items. |
