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| Our own Rosemary KimBal working to save the cuts during her visit to Sacramento, CA. |
Newsom had announced fully cutting the state’s innovative Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund ($12.5 million), plus a reduction of 38% in state grant funding for small arts nonprofits through the California Arts Council (CAC) on May 10 when he released his May Revised budget proposal.
The California Arts Council (CAC) has been in the news recently
because of possible 58% cuts in the budget of the organization. This was fully
discussed at a public
meeting on Friday, May 24 from noon to 4…yes four hours. Here are some of
the highlights.
The CAC seems to be against the recently
proposed possibility of being relocated within the Governor’s Office of
Business and Economic Development. (GoBiz) They want more information and want
to remain independent.
There has been no great explanation of why the move is proposed except to
consolidate expenses and a slight possible suggestion that this office would
give a higher profile to the CAC. This umbrella organization has other
commissions, but the only other arts one is the Film Commission. It was stated
that the CAC vision and mission would not be changed.
If this move does happen, then
having the budget cut at the same time seems counter intuitive. Being
acknowledged as part of economic development, then why would the arts not get
more funding instead of less?
Right now, CAC is an independent council and it is much more than just an
economic driver. There are health, education, and health benefits. Becoming
part of the Office of Business and Economic Development adds another layer of
administration that might slow down all the effectiveness of the organization. So,
the majority of the council stated that the move has to be researched more and should not a quick decision especially without the input of the Council itself.
Please note that the new San
Diego County Commission for Arts and Culture is also under a business and
economic development department here in our own county.
The cuts to the budget that are proposed are $10M reduction
in Local Assistance (grant programs)
plus a state wide cut of 7.9% for all administration cost.
The past budget was $27m with $10m taken away and a commitment
is already made for $6M for General operating grants, that leaves only $4m for
new grants.
There was a committee formed on the request of the state
staff to make suggestion of how to deal with this $10M loss. These kind of policy
decisions are made with rigorous regard to equity.
The suggestion was that general operating funds (GEN) grants
will be closed for Tier 2 and 3 (i.e. organization with budgets $250K to $1.5M).
Only tier one grants will be considered.
Instead, application for other types of grants will have the
deadline extended from June 6 to June 20. This is the give time for those who had submitted
GEN grant in tier 2 and 3 be able to rewrite them (with aid and guidance from
CAC) to other needs and programs.
There was large public input from many arts organizations in
person in LA (where this meeting of the CAC) was held and online. Many just cried loudly for the cuts not to be made. But the best one recommended not to make it easy for the cuts to
happen by accommodating those cuts!
So, when the CAC had to vote on the proposal to stop funding
tier 2 and 3, they voted 4 for and 4 against which means there was not a
majority so the proposal did not pass. Because it did not pass, they could not
vote on the extension of timing on the grants.
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| Our own Rosemary KimBal working to save the cuts during her visit to Sacramento, CA. |
