Now that the flurry of bill activity is over for the moment, the Legislature will be turning its attention back to the Budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, 2007. With a continuing budget shortfall of some magnitude still facing the state (no one is quite sure of the amount since the Governor recently announced a $700 million dollar hole he hadn't seen before), it's time to revisit some of the key priorities of the state.
We've asked one of Speak Out California's newest Board members, Dyanne Cano, to post her thoughts in her capacity as an expert on service-learning and after-school programs in the LA area. In that realm she observes,
not surprisingly, that while California boasts of a huge creative industry supplying billions to our economy,our political leaders show a complete lack of vision when it comes to funding art programs in this state.
Here are her comments:
For the past 30 years, the California Arts Council's mission is "to advance California through the arts and creativity." However, CAC's funding has been cut dramatically over the last few years (from $ 32 million in 2001 to $1 million in 2004 at its lowest--a 97% budget cut in just three years). According to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, California now ranks the lowest among the 50 states in arts funding. Mississippi, the District of Columbia and Guam give more per person to the arts; California gives a mere three cents per person.
Why is increased funding for CAC important? In a 2006 op-ed piece for the San Fransico Chronicle, Alma Robinson, Executive Director of California Lawyers for the Arts, wrote, "Since 2003, when the state's General Fund allocation for the California Arts Council was reduced to $1.1 million, we lost most of the funding for arts education, artists' residencies and fellowships, the arts touring program and grants for the state's diverse arts organizations -- from the mini to the major. Many arts presenters, community arts programs, local arts councils and arts-service organizations are on life support."
To help increase CAC's budget from its current budget of $5.1 million and to protect it from further cuts, there are ways you can tell your representatives that the arts do matter.
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