According to Norma Munn, head of the New York City Arts Coalition, this past Tuesday, Governor David Paterson’s mid-year cut to the New York State Council on the Arts was approved.
I blogged twice about this over the past few months, in case you want to take a look in the archives.
Nevertheless, what we have here is a $7 million mid-year cut, on top of an already implemented 10% cut, totaling a 20% cut for this year alone. The critical blow, a hallmark of bad government, is that because of the timing of the mid-year cut, it will only effect those who have not yet received their grant payments. So, for those who were in the October or December panels, you received ZERO. That’s correct zero. Those who received awards in earlier panels have already received their funding. That’s what I mean by “bad government.”
Bear in mind, what’s happening here has nothing to do with NYSCA as an agency, it is all in the hands of the Governor and State Legislature.
The potential salve, which doesn’t quite add up, is that the the deficit reduction bill directing the mid-year cut includes language which would in effect place grantees who were in those last two panels, and zeroed out, first in line next year before any new grants are considered.
In theory that sounds well and good, but there’s already a proposed budget for next year which combined with this year’s cut, would result in a 40% cut to NYSCA if approved. All things considered, the overall cuts to NYSCA may make it very difficult for this change in the timing of grant consideration for next year to have much practical effect. Either way, it’s going to be tricky for NYSCA, and horrible for the grantees and all of those who benefit from the activities that NYSCA’s support make possible, such as kids in schools without any arts teachers.
I hope this post makes some sense. It’s a bit tricky to explain in relatively brief terms.
I will keep you posted.