Today is Tax Day, the date by which you should have held your nose, swallowed your pride, and filed your tax return with the federal government—knowing full well that far too much of your taxes will fund the military, and far too little of them will fund education, housing, transportation, et cetera.
But on a more local level, there is one transaction you can make today that you might actually feel good about: paying the Portland Arts Tax.
Passed by Portland voters in 2012, the sometimes-maligned Portland Arts Tax asks each city resident to pony up a flat $35 on or before April 15 every year. That money is then distributed to local arts nonprofits and school districts by the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC). Since its inception, it has raised $63 million.
In the Mercury’s recent spring arts issue, news editor Alex Zielinski found that, until recently, RACC’s method for doling out those funds tended to favor the already large and powerful Portland art institutions. Per Alex’s reporting:
“RACC currently calculates the amount of grant funding an organization receives based on that applicant’s budget size. It’s no surprise, then, that over the past decade, a whopping 57 percent of RACC’s total grant dollars have been distributed among the city’s five largest arts nonprofits: Portland Art Museum, the Oregon Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Portland Opera, and Portland Center Stage.”
But starting in 2020, that funding process is going to be turned on its head. In addition to looking at an organization’s budget, RACC will also take into account its demonstrated commitment to serving underrepresented communities. Smaller, more diverse arts organizations could see a big bump in RACC funding—and local art behemoths, like the Portland Art Museum, could see an estimated 59 percent drop in RACC dollars.
Here’s what that means for you: The $35 you pay on your arts tax today could be spent to help an arts organization that serves, hires, and promotes the work of people of color, or the LGBTQ community, or people with disabilities—basically, anyone besides the old white guys that fancy art galleries still tend to favor.
If you live within Portland city limits, you can pay your arts tax here.
“RACC will also take into account its demonstrated commitment to serving underrepresented communities.” This will come as a surprise to anyone who’s dealt with RACC. Demonstrated where? How? I get the principle and optimism of the writer, but alas I think it is misplaced.
This is a flat tax, and by nature oppressive to the poor and marginalized. I’ll neglect to mention that their grants are taxed at 40%, too, but poor artists must account up front for 100% of it’s usage, which comes with demands and restrictions. I’ll neglect to mention that RACC and other art institutions use marginalized voices to raise funds, while often lowballing performers and artists they use when it comes time to pay up.
The poor and the minority voices who, by the way, may not trust their money going to the hands of a bourgeois, lily white, and historically prejudicial institution. Keep your $35, and spend it instead on directly supporting the arts and culture of marginalized communities. If the rich want to throw a few gold coins from their Lexus and extend their hands from the window so that we may kiss the glove, let them at least pay for the coins.
Head taxes are inherently oppressive. Theres a reason that they are widely considered illegal, and that every other tax system uses a percentage. The existance of it at all just shows the incompetence of how money is being handled by our city.
Hell no. The city and Racc admin fee % from this tax are ridiculous, and the city last year approved allowing them to go up. It’s also an unfair head tax. Low income households who need that money for groceries are punished while the wealthy pay a teeny percentage of their income on it. And PERS retirees don’t pay a dime of their fair share because oddly they are exempt.
I have never paid it and won’t, just like a big chunk of other Portlanders also do not pay. Instead, I take much more money and donate it to arts in schools programs, street art programs, and non profits that offer free to low cost arts education and services. I also just, you know, as pointed out above buy art directly from artists. Really, a government pimp and middleman who suck up more money and use it on questionable stuff while being a pain the ass to POC and other underrepresented artists is NOT supporting the arts and arts education.
Lots of complaining about the arts tax, but people can’t seem to organize to revoke it. Democracy is a living and breathing thing… don’t like it? Fix it.
PS “old white guys”. Blair: that sucks. You can do better. RACC funding to established institutions drives engagement from underserved communities; it isn’t subsidizing canapes and chablis for the 1%.
Head taxes ought to be illegal, and that’s really what we should be working toward. The working class was swindled on this vote. The wealthy slipped this in, knowing that Portlanders don’t mind taxes that fund vital services, and playing it off as helping children and schools without focusing on the structure of the tax. A lot of well-intentioned people, like presumably the author of this article, were hoodwinked into a reactionary tax model that vastly favors the wealthy. It set a dangerous standard. I am glad people aren’t paying. Question how tax models favor the wealthy, and also question whether or not your institutions are actually helping the poor and marginalized, or whether they’re simply codifying oppressive structures and gatekeeping capital.