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Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Gov. Perry suggests taking away funding for Texas Arts and Historical Commissions
Under the House and Senate proposed budget, the two agencies would operate with half, or even a quarter, of their current funds.
Photo by Todd Wiseman
Cow John and Old Ruidoso by Robert Summers. On display at the White Horse Station, a coffeeshop, event space, and art gallery, in Clifton, Texas.
Gov. Rick Perry argued in his State of the State speech Tuesday that lawmakers should suspend funding for two state agencies — the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Texas Historical Commission — because they don’t provide "mission-critical" services. But what do they do? And what won’t get done without them?
The nearly 60-year-old Texas Historical Commission is the 200-worker agency that installs and maintains nearly 12,000 historical markers statewide and administers federal and state preservation statutes. It’s a key player in the work to rebuild the arson-damaged Governor’s Mansion and, notably, disagreed with a plan backed by first lady Anita Perry to build an addition onto the Governor’s Mansion (the addition was later scaled back).
Jim Ray, volunteer president of Preservation Texas, an advocacy group for preserving the state’s historic resources, said suspending funding to the agency would hurt effective programs like the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program and the Texas Main Street Program, which “preserve Texas history and its heritage, but also are economic generators in the communities where they operate.”
The agency also oversees archaeological projects like the excavation and restoration of the Belle, a ship that sank in 1686 in Matagorda Bay. The ship was part of a failed expedition by French explorer La Salle, and the Historical Commission has called it one of the most important shipwrecks ever discovered in North America.
Defunding the agency “would be a crime against the entire history of the state,” said Donny Hamilton, head of the anthropology department at Texas A&M University.
The Texas Commission on the Arts, meanwhile, provides grants to art programs and promotes tourism in the state.
The Commission and its programs affect 2.2 million Texans statewide, said Gary Gibbs, the agency’s executive director — providing funding to a wide variety of events and programs, from the Austin Shakespeare Festival to the Amarillo Opera. It also provides marketing and promotional services to help rural Texas towns attract tourists.
The commission also uses funds to promote arts in education, providing grants to Texas students across the state through its Young Masters program, which last year gave 22 students grants of up to $2,500 in financial assistance to pursue the arts for up to three years.
"The arts in Texas provide economic development and make our communities a better place to live," Gibbs said.
Ray suggests that eliminating such agencies — and namely the Historical Commission — could invite intervention from Washington, one of Perry’s least favorite things. If there’s no state agency to review construction projects for their impact on historical preservation, Ray said, it’s likely the U.S. Department of Interior could step in to do it.
And slashing either agency could be a political trial-by-fire for Perry. Both boards are loaded with political appointees, many of them Republican supporters who landed plum spots in return for their loyalty.
Even if the agencies aren’t eliminated altogether, they still face massive cuts. Under the House and Senate proposed budget, the two agencies — which were granted a combined $100 million in the most recent budget, including bond money and federal funds — would operate with half, or even a quarter, of their current funds.
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Sorry, but I don't suffer fools gladly. Have a nice day.
Dallas-based Pecan Lodge is Texas Monthly's second-best barbecue joint, sort of
It's good and the hoi-paloi likes it, so the stiffs who insist on "redecorating" Dallas to suit thei
Jason Rice, verified:
Moronic!! Yeah - we got a notice about this yesterday. Idiocy.
Something NOT mentioned is that TCA (and I tend to the same for THC) gets FEDERAL Monies that are ONLY available if the State ponies up first. So it's a double hit. They lose Fed money of we are stupid (which seems fair) - so it's dead.
C'mon people... we just sat through a G8dd833ed football game where a SINGLE 30 SECOND COMMERCIAL cost more that all this combined. We can afford the arts and the "Texas Pride" a little, can't we?
Mission-critical? Heck yes. If you want Hollywood and Madison Avenue selling you all your culture, then ... there's always California and New York for you.
Don't let the door hit ya!
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Jason Rice, verified:
Finally, Travis can add me to his Rick Perry Tar-and-Feathers Hit Squad.
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Kirby, anonymous:
Clearly, the least mission-critical department of all is the Office of the Governor.
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
News flash. Local, state, and federal governments are going broke and can't afford frivolity like funding multi-cultural dance troupes, and other non-sense.
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Jason Rice, verified:
Then enjoy your Gomer Pyle reruns.
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efriend, anonymous:
Funding for the Arts is critical for the sucess of Texas as an economic powerhouse. The arts drive a multitude of sub-economies in Texas (Movies, Music, Tourism, Concert Production Companies, Electronic Manufacturers, Architecture, and Building Construction, to name just a few). Be an advocate for the arts! Learn more at: http://www.theatreface.com/profiles/b...
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Jason Rice, verified:
Thanks EF -- it's more than a canary in the coal mine. As go the arts, so goes industry.
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barb, anonymous:
I would be happy to donate to any 'tar and feather Rick Perry' group. He reminds me more and more of EX governor Rod Blagojevich.
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Kirby, anonymous:
Coincidentally, this is from an e-mail sent out today by the Washington State Arts Commission (WSAC) today:
"· Last year WSAC invested nearly $800,000 in 220 small businesses in 60 cities and towns across the state.
"· Arts Commission dollars support jobs for artists, electricians, welders, engineers and other skilled workers.
"· In 2009, there were more than 100,000 creative jobs in Washington state.
"· In 2010, WSAC’s arts education grants supported high quality standards-based arts instruction for 90,000 students.
"· The State’s $500,000 arts in education investment helped leverage an additional $2 million in federal, local, private and in-kind support.
"· In Central Puget Sound region, the arts generate close to $2 billion annually."
No doubt, the numbers would be significantly higher for Texas. But why confuse the governor with facts?
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Jason Rice, verified:
Facts do seem to get in the way of most our politicians.
They must not be very good facts, huh?
Nice share - will propagate.
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
Fact: many starving artists do late night binges at the Waffle House; employing waitress, short order cooks, and egg ranchers.
Government funding is necessary!
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Jason Rice, verified:
We also provide endless entertainment online as well.
Without me, you're stuck with Clay.
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Travis Bush, verified:
You would think that a "fight generation" Texan would care about our history, but then again we are talking about Rick Perry. Obviously he's more interested in his party line than he is in his state.
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hilz, anonymous:
this is sad. ;(
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jtmbls, anonymous:
This is only the tip of the iceburg people. Just wait till we get a fiscally responsible president in office.
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Jason Rice, verified:
My money is on meeting the Easter Bunny this spring.
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Jason Rice, verified:
Truly , performing arts generate business. People that haven't looked into the numbers - study after study in economies worse than this - find it counter-intuitive.
A recent study concluded that arts contributed $15 billion (yes, B, as in 9 zeroes) to the local business economy over the past twenty years. No, Kane, it's not a bunch of actors whining late nite at a waffle house. Some people see artists where their art is.
More info here NTBCA.org
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
Hey, I don't like cutting spending as much as the next guy. But somthing has to give. Government is spending more than it is taking in. And more taxes aren't the way to go IMO.
What's your solution?
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jtmbls, anonymous:
Hey Jason, is cable TV included in those numbers?
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Jason Rice, verified:
Tumbles - pretty sure Cox Cable was decidedly NOT part of the study. Wise-acre.
Kane, I don't eat apples for the water content either. I understand there is a process that creates the apple and cutting off the water, while having no affect on the other components, kills the tree.
Cutting off the funding to the TCA will dry up the federal support... you might as well say permanently, as funding requests invariably are ordered in priority of active recipients. It's not a buffet. If you're at the trough this year, they save you a seat next year. You don't get to pick and choose years to participate.
This is not an unusual pattern for business either, if you think about it. Getting a new client is harder than keeping a good one well and happy.
You would understand most scientific and product development R&D in the same terms of ongoing forward investment. This is just cultural R&D. New products, new markets and new ideas come from it, just like in the innards of HP, IBM or Honda.
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
You still didn't answer the question. Austin has a constitutional requirement to balance the budget which requires big cuts in spending. What would you cut, if not the arts?
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Jason Rice, verified:
And YOU just cheered a contract for 8 times that total private outlay for a baseball player for only two years.
I might cut the abatements/aid/scamming of the state by your beloved sports entertainment industry. It's obviously doing fine on its own.
Any small portion of the Ranger Stadium Scandal >$200 Million) would do fine to support this piddling little 3 mill "albatross."
Or how about the scam that is a $1.15 BILLION "non-profit" that is tax exempt we call the Cowboy Stadium. GIVE ME A BREAK!
Oh, I can hear it now "But they bring in so much in sales tax!!!" --- um, same concept, same dang percentages, as a matter of fact..... just your backyard, not mine.
THAT is what I'd do. TAX the guys making more off parking in one evening than the Arts in Texas will actually "cost" in a decade.
Happy?
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
I agree. I don't suport public funding of the arts, sports teams, radio programming, yada yada.
But, even after your soapbox rage, Austin is still left with a defecit to cover this year. You still haven't told us how you would balance the budget.
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Jason Rice, verified:
Played this one before, darling.
Selective hearing is not a "win" it's "draw"
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
Huh?
I guess you don't have any suggestions. Just soapbox BS rage against "the man."
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Jason Rice, verified:
My suggestion was tax or stop exempting sports.
Your response was "I didn't hear a suggestion"
We can go through that again if you missed it.
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SitizenKane, anonymous:
Selfish suggestions. Tax the other guy and cut their subsidies, but not mine!
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Jason Rice, verified:
I can sit and cherry pick a thousand chunks of $2 mill whose absence "just for a year" wouldn't affect me.
Your involvement aligns with Perry's. Congrats.
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Clay213, anonymous:
Here's a start:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05...
Slick Rick the Ruler spends more on rent with our money than his salary and yet idiotic Texans keep voting for him.
We deserve what we get. In Dallas we get Tom Leppert and Dwaine Caraway et al.
Texas we get a guy who should be doing self help infomercials and selling vacuum cleaners door to door.
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Jason Rice, verified:
Man I HATE agreeing with Clay.
I always feel a need for a karmic antisepsis afterwards.
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Clay213, anonymous:
If I spent more than I make on rent-- it would be called 'living beyond my means' and I would soon end up joining the human garbage sleeping on the lawn of the First Presbyterian yet this scumbag can somehow spend 10 grand a month of tax dollars on rent?
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jtmbls, anonymous:
I would like to suggest that we cut 3.8 million in plants and linens to start.
https://bi.cpa.state.tx.us/OpenDocume...
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What do you think?