Florida’s arts funding cuts brutal — and disgraceful
We’ve known for several years now that Florida state government’s relationship with its arts community has been a bit complicated. The two don’t talk much. And when they do, it’s usually about money. Still, they have tolerated one another because they seemed to need one another.
That relationship dynamic seems to have changed. And not for the better.
In the record $88.7 billion state budget for fiscal 2018-19, signed gleefully by Gov. Rick Scott in March, Florida lawmakers — led by the House of Representatives — included just $2.6 million for cultural grants to spread among 489 organizations around the state by the state’s Division of Cultural Affairs (DCA).
According to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, this paltry sum — down 90 percent from the current fiscal year’s allocation — drops Florida’s ranking in per capita appropriations from 10th in the nation to 48th.
We know a “discerning eye” is used when it comes to art and culture, but this is ridiculous. Perhaps a more appropriate explanation for this drastic cut is “willful ignorance.”
State lawmakers have defended the cuts to grants for local arts programs by trotting out the expenses demanded by Hurricane Irma, the opioid epidemic and the Parkland shootings. To hide behind these tragedies is morally reprehensible. Somehow, the Republican-dominated Legislature managed to find taxpayer money for dubious priorities it felt important, such as $41 million to fund tuition vouchers that allow students bullied in traditional public schools to transfer to private schools.
While it’s reasonable to ask why the arts shouldn’t pay their own way, it’s also fair to look at the return that the arts provide for our tax dollar. In 2015, when the Legislature provided $43 million to fully fund all arts programs vetted by the DCA for matching grants, more than $492 million was generated for local and state government coffers — a 9-to-1 return — according to the Florida Cultural Alliance, a state advocacy group.
Yet despite a return that would be the envy of most for-profit businesses, these nonprofit organizations watched their state-level grant funding dwindle to $34.8 million in 2016, $32.7 million in 2017, $24.6 million in 2018 and next year’s inexplicable sum.
That’s left local arts and cultural groups, most already struggling, scrambling. As The Post’s Jennifer Sorentrue reported, 39 cultural organizations in Palm Beach County shared $3.1 million in state grant money this year. Local arts leaders fear that next year’s total could be roughly 10 percent of that at best.
Among those groups taking a hit:
■ Dreyfoos School of the Arts Foundation, a nonprofit group created to help enhance the West Palm Beach school’s art and academic programs, could see its award cut to $9,600 from $46,000 this year.
■ Armory Art Center, the West Palm Beach nonprofit that provides support for local artists and residents, expects to get $9,000 compared with the $80,000 it was awarded two years ago.
■ Young Singers of the Palm Beaches, a community-based children’s choir serving about serving about 350 kids in seven choirs and about 600 children in after-school programs, will get $6,000 compared with $64,000 three years ago.
“It has a huge impact,” Beth Clark, chief executive of Young Singers, told Sorentrue. “We work very hard to never cut programs for the children. (But) it is extremely difficult.”
To be sure, the state-provided matching grants are not the only source of funding for the arts. Nor is it even the primary source for many organizations. Arts funding, this year, is only 0.0004 percent of the state budget.
But these organizations’ leaders are quick to say it still helps to make things happen.
The Dreyfoos Foundation’s Kristin Lidinsky, for instance, told The Post the nonprofit may not be able to employ as many part-time teachers through its artist-in-residence program, which has already seen its number of teachers fall from 24 to its current level of 15.
At the new funding level, arts and cultural organizations are right to mull whether it is even worth applying for a $2,000 or $4,000 grant, given the time and resources required to do so.
They shouldn’t even be in this position. The governor and the Legislature need to rethink their priorities and figure out a way to restore arts funding to current levels.