Advocacy Overview

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ARTS ADVOCACY OVERVIEW

California Arts Council Restoration Issue

Our goal is to obtain support of the Governor and California
legislature for restoration of the budget of the Council to $36
million, or $1 per person, in order to restore community arts services
and CAC programs at all levels.

In the meantime, this is a brief summary of the current situation of
the California Arts Council:

State funding from the General Fund was reduced from $32 million to 1.1
million four years ago.

The $1.1 million was maintained because it was a requirement to match a
federal grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA.) of
$961,000.

The $1.1 million from the state's general fund equals approximately
three cents per person. This is the lowest per capita funding in the
entire United States, less than Mississippi, the District of Columbia
and Guam.

As a result, California no longer funds artists residencies in the
schools, community institutions and jails; the state's touring program
has disappeared; and there are no fellowships for individual artists.

To the credit of our Governor and the legislature, the state's budget
for 2006-07 provides a generous increase for arts and music in our
state's public schools but there was no increase in the budget for the
California Arts Council, which funds non-profit arts organizations,
community arts and arts in social institutions.

While California spends three cents from the State's General Fund, New
York spends about $2.35 per person (an increase from $2.20 in 2005-06),
according to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Hawaii, at
$5.56 per person is first; New Jersey at $3.42 person is second.

We are seeking to restore the California Arts Council to $36 million,
which would equal about $1/person.

The budget passed for 2006-07 allocates a total of $5.11 million for
the CAC, keeping the General Fund allocation at $1.144 million, with an
additional $965,000 from the NEA and $197, 000 for miscellaneous
reimbusements, and an increase to $2.804 million from special license
plates. The entire projected increase would come from the license plate
fees.

The proposal to fund the State Arts Council at a level of $36 million
would bring back arts programs in communities throughout the state and
revive inter-departmental activities with other state agencies. Without
this support, we will continue to lose our State's most creative and
talented people--a trend which is already happening.

The need for arts funding is a basic community need, not just an issue
which concerns the arts and artists. It affects economic vitality,
ethnic relations, public safety, delinquency prevention, learning
ability, public safety, --in all of our communities, rural and urban.

Currently California's recidivism rate is twice the national average.
It was estimated that a life of crime costs the public between $1.7 and
$2.3 million. A small investiment in arts funding would yield
tremendous dividends in preventing juvenile delinquency, and reducing
recidivism among California adult offenders.

For these reasons, the League of California Cities and the State
Sheriff's Association are in support of restoring the funding for the
California Arts Council.

Additional information is available in the op-ed piece our Executive
Director wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, which was published on
1/6/06. You can download this article with the following link:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/06/EDGU9GHG0Q1
.DTL&hw=Alma+Robinson&sn=001&sc=1000

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