Arts in Crisis: Budget Update & MCACA Meeting

Budget Update

Yesterday the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of History, Arts and Libraries met to release its substitute to Senate Bill 247. Included in the House Substitute was a total of $7,466,200 in grant funding for FY2010, with a little over $6.9 million coming from the state's general fund - a $571,700 cut from current year funding.

However, more noteworthy than the funding figure, is that the subcommittee did not vote on the bill. This was explained by the Chair, Representative Shanelle Jackson, as the committee's desire to continue to 'wait and see' what happens with the budget revenue estimates in the coming months. With a deep current fiscal year deficit as well as an estimated $2 billion in fiscal year 2010 that is continually growing, all budgets are being held until next year's revenue picture is clearer.

This could very well mean that, if the revenue estimates continue to look bleak, we would likely see the $7.5 million mentioned above be decreased even further - so don't put too much stock into this number just yet.

As of today, we have the Governor's recommendation at $1 million, the Senate at $3.6 million and are still waiting on the House. There is still a long way to go in this process, so don't be discouraged as ArtServe is continuing to work with supportive legislators to retain funding for arts and cultural grants.

Trust that we will continue to monitor the budget as well as provide any updates as they arise.

MCACA Meeting

Yesterday the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs met in Lansing to discuss their plans to address the $286,000 in mid-year cuts as well as the process they will take to award the NEA Stimulus Funding.

MID-YEAR CUTS

The council voted unanimously to accept a proposal that would take an across the board cut of 3.74% to address the mid-year cuts announced by the Governor earlier this month. This proposal did, however, spare mini-grants from any cuts and set a minimum cut of $100 for any grant recipient that received $4,000 or less. We were told that these cuts will be taken out of July 15th payment's from the state. I will post the list of cuts each organization took on our website as soon as I obtain a digital copy.

NEA STIMULUS

It was also announced that MCACA received 122 applications for stimulus funding through the monies received from the National Endowment for the Arts. The council formed a committee to review the applications and explained that no decisions will be made until after the NEA announces its grant recipients, which is expected to occur near the end of June.

As always, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact Mike Latvis at mike@artservemichigan.org or 248-379-5897.