Protecting Ohio's Heritage

As Ohio’s statewide arts advocacy service organization, Ohio Citizens for the Arts works to secure public funding for the arts. Discussions of slashes to the National Endowment for the Arts continue in Washington, and the advocacy efforts of organization’s like Ohio Citizens for the Arts are critical to retaining as much of the NEA’s budget as possible. The organization is focused on its mission, and it is attempting to affect policy in a new way.

Five Ohio organizations have joined forces to form the Coalition in support of “Protecting Ohio’s Heritage.” The Ohio Citizens for the Arts, Friends of the Ohio Historical Society, Ohio Environmental Council, Ohio League of Conservation Voters, and Ohio Soil and Water Districts are the first of other potential organizations that may participate in this effort. The Coalition states,

“There are few things that make Ohio a special place, that improve our lives and help define us. Our arts and culture, our land, our lakes and rivers, our history; these assets are the core of what it means to be an Ohioan.”

The goal of the Coalition is to create a statewide ballot issue that will dedicate revenue to protect Ohio’s arts, culture, historic, and natural assets. This policy mirrors the Minnesota’s Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, which passed in November of 2008. The amendment stated that the sales and use tax rate would be increased from 6.5% to 6.875% on taxable sales until the year 2034—revenue which would be decided to protect drinking water sources, land, arts and culture organizations, parks and trails, and bodies of water. 19.75% of the new revenue created a new Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, which generated about $8 million in FY2010 and $54.5 million in FY2011.

If a similar amendment were passed in Ohio, $26 million could be generated to preserve Ohio’s arts and cultural heritage. The Coalition is currently in Phase I of their policy work. This includes such actions as research, polling, and focus groups to gather public opinion; legal research to draft ballot language and rationale; and economic impact analysis from a variety of sectors within the Coalition. The group is also utilizing strategy and communications firms to lead the process.

Again, like Arts Power Chicago, we have another example of collaborative advocacy in an effort to support the arts. In this case, the collaboration involves organizations that have a range of interests that collectively support not only the arts but also parks, natural resources, and historic sites. The research and analysis going into the process is deliberate and inclusive, which will hopefully help garner public support for the proposed ballot issue.

An interesting e-mail "Americans for the Arts Action Fund"

I just received an e-mail that I found very interesting. I do not know how I got it but I did. I would like to share it with those invested in the Arts and the different organizations that support it at the national level. As responsible citizens that care about the arts and the public policies I believe it is important to read it, share it and act when possible.

Dear Ana Paula, We need your help. The new majority in power in the U.S. House of Representatives is taking an axe to thecurrent 2011 federal budget in an attempt to bring it down to levels from three years ago. That alone would cut irreplaceable National Endowment for the Arts funding to state and local nonprofit arts groups by at least $27 million immediately. However, 175 members of the Republican Study Committee, an independent but powerful arm of the GOP party, are pushing even further by unfairly targeting total elimination of many programs that you and I care about. Elimination of such federal agencies as the National Endowment for the Arts would cripple support for nonprofit arts and culture programs in every city and state across the country. It would no doubt quickly impact the livability and economic vitality in your community as well. Help us prevent attacks to disproportionately cut these federal agencies and programs: National Endowment for the Arts and for the Humanities, funding arts organizations throughout Ohio Arts Education Programs, which fund local model projects through the U.S. Department of Education Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS stations throughout the country and are strong supporters of arts programming In these next four weeks, the House of Representatives will finalize the 2011 budget. We don’t have much time – please donate even as little as $5 to the Arts Action Fund’sCampaign to Prevent Elimination of the Arts. Thank you, Nina Ozlu Tunceli Executive Director --Ana Paula

Apparently, Republicans Hate Making Money...

1700% Return on Investment?! Yes, Please!

If you lent a friend $1 today and one year later, they gave you $17.75, you'd take that arrangement, right? Of course you would! Unless you are a Republican. Yup, the GOP is at it again. The Spending Reduction Act that was released by the Republican Study Committee earlier this month proposes to slash funding for arts and culture. In these economic times, I can certainly respect lawmakers attempting to make cuts and balance a budget through the adoption of new or revised policy. However, in their most recently proposed bill, the GOP is way off base. You see, federal support of the arts through partial matches to state agencies, organizations such as the NEA and National Endowment for the Humanities, and other national arts programs totals 1.6 billion dollars a year. That may seem like a lot, but not in comparison to the amount of revenue that the arts provide to federal, state, and local governments and businesses, which equals upwards of $30 billion annually. Yeah. There is that 1700% return on investment I was talking about. And if any Republicans on the Republican Study Committee are reading this blog and want to argue with me about this, here is the math to figure that out:

(Return on Investment-Initial Cost of Investment)/(Initial Cost of Investment), multiply the answer by 100 to get percentage.

($30 billion - $ 1.6 billion)/($1.6 billion)=17.75*100=1775% return on your investment.

Sorry GOP. You can't argue with facts. (Although, you will probably try) The proposals to cut arts funding as part of this bill are absolutely ridiculous and are extremely dangerous. Not only will economies lose monies that the arts provide, but you'll certainly be hurting for the tax monies from those 5.7 million people whose jobs you want to cut. Then you'll have to start proposing crazy things like cutting your own salaries or stop initiating pointless wars. But that's another blog post altogether...

Here is the exact language from the bill:

TITLE V—PROGRAM ELIMI NATIONS AND RELATED PROVISIONS
Subtitle A—Provisions Relating to Program Eliminations

SEC. 501. PROGRAM ELIMINATIONS.

(a) IN GENERAL.—No funds appropriated or otherwise available to any Federal department or agency may be obligated or expended for any program or other purpose described in subsection (b).

Some of the programs listed in subsection (b) include: The Save America's Treasures Program, The National Heritage Areas Program, The National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (!?!), The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation.

Also included in the proposed cuts in later parts of the bill are: Arts in Education (as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965), The Special Olympics Sports Empowerment Program, the Head Start Program, and many other cultural programs.

http://rsc.jordan.house.gov/UploadedFiles/JORDAN_004_xml.pdf (link to the full bill)

Thoughts from the head of the Republican Study Committee on the Spending Reduction Act:
http://rsc.jordan.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=220713


And the LA Times article in the subject....

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/01/republican-study-group-proposes-cutting-arts-funds.html