According to an email currently being circulated by the Regional Arts and Culture Council, proposed cuts to the state budget include $211,384 from the Oregon Arts Commission, $350,000 from the Oregon Historical Society, and $64,085 cut in lottery funds from the Office of Film and Television, as well as the recapture of $1.8 million from the permanent fund of the Oregon Cultural Trust—revenue generated by the sale of license plates designed and sold specifically to benefit the Trust. You know, these. Oregon already ranks dismally in terms of public funding for the arts—one of the bottom five states in per capita spending, last I checked (Portland ranks 23rd among metropolitan regions). I listen to OPB, I know things are bad—but I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment expressed in the RACC letter:
The Cultural Trust was authorized by the Legislature in 1999 – ten years ago – to grow and stabilize funding for culture – in good times and in bad. To skim the Trust fund and re-allocate cultural license plate fees for the General Fund is a violation of trust with the buyers of the plates who assumed they were supporting Oregon culture with their purchases. To raid the fund to pay for other state services simply violates the very purpose of the Trust and the intent of the Trust’s thousands of donors: to protect and invest in Oregon’s cultural resources.
Click here to register your dismay. I’ll post the full letter after the jump.
***ACTION ALERT from The Regional Arts & Culture Council ***
Help Preserve Oregon Arts, Culture, and Humanities Funding
If you read the newspaper and listen to broadcast media, you know that Oregon is facing one of the most significant budget shortfalls in its history. The State issued its revenue forecast on Friday. Revenue projections are now an additional $55 million over the previously announced shortfall of $800 million in the State’s General Fund. Lottery revenues are also down.
Legislators issued a “cut list” last week. It contains proposed reductions and fund sweeps for all agencies to re-balance the 2007- 09 budget, assuming an $800 million hole. This represents a serious threat to state funding for culture.
In this proposal are the following reductions in current year spending:
$211,384 cut to the Oregon Arts Commission
$350,000 cut to the Oregon Historical Society
$ 64,085 cut in lottery funds to the Office of Film and Television
Finally, and most sobering: the “funds sweep” list of Other Funds includes the recapture of $1.8 million from the permanent fund of the Oregon Cultural Trust. The $1.8 million includes $1.3 million in cultural license plate revenue generated since 2003 – plus interest.
The Cultural Trust was authorized by the Legislature in 1999 – ten years ago – to grow and stabilize funding for culture – in good times and in bad. To skim the Trust fund and re-allocate cultural license plate fees for the General Fund is a violation of trust with the buyers of the plates who assumed they were supporting Oregon culture with their purchases. To raid the fund to pay for other state services simply violates the very purpose of the Trust and the intent of the Trust’s thousands of donors: to protect and invest in Oregon’s cultural resources.
This situation is very serious. Not only are legislators dealing with a large revenue shortfall and the potential of an additional $55 million in cuts, there are efforts underway to hold k-12 school funding from further reductions.
Take Action Now.
Use the Cultural Advocacy Coalition’s website to send a message directly to your legislators. You can use one of the messages on the website – or write your own message to convey the importance of cultural funding in your city, town or county and why the Oregon Cultural Trust needs to be remain intact and taken off the fund sweep
list.
Work to re-balance the state budget is proceeding very quickly and may be completed by this weekend. Weigh in with your opinion. Click here to send a message to your legislators NOW. It will only take two minutes of your time!
Thank you.
Eloise Damrosch, Executive Director
Regional Arts & Culture Council
108 NW 9th, Suite 300, Portland, OR 97209
www.racc.org
How much public arts funding should there be? Must there always be more? Given the choice between public arts funding and items such as healthcare, food stamps, welfare, WIC, unemployment, school funding, etc, etc, which would you choose?
MSG, I’m glad I’m not the one who has to rank these funding priorities. Spending on arts does have measurable benefits—arts organizations create jobs, attract tourists to the area, stimulate spending in the local economy, etc. Regardless, cutting money raised specifically for the Cultural Trust seems questionable to me under any circumstances, like dipping into the proceeds from a PTA bake sale.
In bad times, it is indeed difficult to choose what gets cut and what doesn’t. A superficial response might well be “yeah, duh, if we have to choose between bridges falling apart and artsy stuff…. no brainer, fund the new bridges…”
But this was a deal. The letter is right. It is robbery to take the money generated by the sale of the license plates earmarked for the cultural trust. Sure, taking other funds, which don’t come from that revenue source, is legitimate. But taking those funds is commits a fraud upon those who put into it. If the letter is accurate, that’s 1.3 million that can’t be touched.
The rest, however, is fair game to the scramble to make whatever bad sausage they will make in this budget.
As an historian and college instructor, I care about cutting the funding to programs, especially to the OHS Research Library. We are talking about jobs and the people affected by these losses will end up collecting unemployment and possibly other public benefits, which would further straining the system. Besides, the money was specifically set aside for the cultural trust. It would be like me dipping in to your savings account because I decided that I need the money more than you do.