An art to spending

When it comes to budget cuts, “devastating” is of course in the eye of the beholder.

The Herald reported Sunday on an amendment to the House budget, up for debate this week, which would tack $6 million more onto the line item for the Massachusetts Cultural Council. House budget-writers had decided the council, which provides grants to arts and cultural institutions, could get by on $10 million next year. But Rep. Cory Atkins (D-Concord), who filed the amendment, says $16 million is closer to the mark.

The council’s executive director, Anita Walker, told the Herald the proposed reduction would be “an absolutely devastating cut” and “a job-killer.” Atkins focused on the impact on “every town in the commonwealth.”

But grants to local cultural councils totaled $3 million in fiscal 2017, according to funding lists on the council’s website. With a $10 million budget it could easily maintain that level of support.

The rest of the money gets parceled out through a variety of grant programs, both to individual artists and to arts organizations. And as we noted when funding for the council was an issue during last year’s budget debate, that includes hundreds of thousands of dollars going to major private institutions including the Wang Theatre ($300,000 to replace seats), the Museum of Science and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Gov. Charlie Baker trimmed the Cultural Council’s budget last year, but the House and Senate voted to restore it, arguing that small arts organizations would suffer the most. And it’s true that those small, local institutions rely to a greater extent on state grant funding than larger institutions, which often have huge endowments and benefit from the patronage of the Bay State’s wealthiest citizens.

But that just reinforces the need to set priorities.

And good luck convincing state taxpayers that funding equipment upgrades at the Framingham Public Library (which got $91,000 from the Cultural Council for that purpose last year) is part of their duty as citizens to support and promote the arts.