Public television prepares

The Trump administration also would like to eliminate support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was allocated $445 million in fiscal 2016.

Jerry Franklin, president of Connecticut Public Broadcasting, said the threat is not new. “We have been preparing for this because we have had some trial runs with this legislation,” he said. “Eight years in a row under the George Bush administration, a similar bill was introduced.”

His nonprofit organization receives $1.9 million of its $21 million budget from the federal government but, in addition, 20 percent of the Public Broadcasting Service’s national schedule is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, shows ranging from “Sesame Street” to “NOVA” to “Downton Abbey.”

“We have a plan that we would implement if we lose all our federal funding,” Franklin said. “We would force PBS to offer its programming on an a la carte basis.” Children’s shows, which make up about half the day’s programming, would have to be cut back. “That children’s genre is not supported” by sponsors, Franklin said. “That would take a hit. We don’t know to what extent but I would estimate that 30 percent of children’s programming would disappear.”

Franklin added that “without federal funding the pressure on public broadcasting would be to adopt some form of commercial programming. … That’s the last thing we need in Connecticut. … I have zero interest in running a commercial television station.”

Franklin, like others, said he was optimistic that public television and radio would be saved. “I really don’t think they want another battle with Big Bird,” he said, referring to past budget battles.

Frances “Bitsie” Clark, who served as director of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven from 1983 to 2002, called the proposed cuts “an absolute tragedy” but added, “This is par for the course. Arts are always beleaguered. It’s either feast or famine.”

In the 1980s, the council could spend $4,000 on a cocktail party but in 1991, “We ran out of money.”

“I really realized, in looking back, we made more progress when we didn’t have money than when we did.” She said that in the down days of the 1990s, many arts organizations worked together to put on an AIDS benefit called “Hearts for Life.”

“If the arts allow themselves to fold up and get mad and do nothing … you’re doomed. But the arts aren’t that way. They really are able to reach out and work together.”