New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's preliminary fiscal 1998 budget proposes chopping 35% from monies available for small theatres and other not-for-profit arts groups. The plan would also reduce funds for the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) by 15%. The mayor would also cut the city's $2.25 million Cultural Challenge matching grant program by $250,000.
The city Department of Cultural Affairs--which funds these arts programs--would see its budget fall from the present $91 million to $75.9 million. According to the agency's five-year summary, the mayor would hold that funding level through FY 1999, then slightly increase it to $76.2 million for FYs 2000 and 2001.
Theatres, dance companies, and other nonprofit arts groups receive their grants through the DCA's Program Services unit. Presently funded at $11.7 million, the reduction would remove $3.7 million, leaving the unit with $8 million for cultural organizations throughout NYC's five boroughs. That $3.2 million cut would apply each fiscal year through 2001.
The CIG consists of major arts organizations, such as the Public Theater and City Center, which are housed in city-owned buildings. Its current $76 million would drop by a total of $11.5 million to $64.5 million, which includes a reduction in the CIG's energy subsidies; i.e., how they pay their utility bills.
Norma Munn, chair of the New York City Arts Coalition, ironically referred to the mayor's proposal as "a slightly better projected cut than the previous year; but it's still unacceptable, especially since the mayor expects most of these groups to provide arts in education through the Annenberg grant and through the Board of Education."
The Pennsylvania-based Annenberg Foundation provided a $12 million two-to-one matching grant last March for a five-year arts-in-education partnership with the city schools. Last month, Giuliani said in his State of the City address that he would "restore arts education to all of our public schools." City officials figure it could take as much as $100 million of the mayor's proposed $8.61 billion for education in FY98 to accomplish that.
But Munn told Back Stage, "No one seems to realize you can't eliminate basic operation-type programs, still have [theatres and other arts groups] function, and turn around and do programming for schools. If you cut a theatre group's productions, they can cease to exist--or, I suppose, do arts education instead. But that's not what theatre companies are about."
The mayor had stumbled into a "major inconsistency," Munn said, by proposing new money for arts education "and then walloping the CIGs and other programs which he expects to provide these services."
Ruth Messinger, president of the Manhattan Borough, had scheduled a public hearing to address community needs for Thurs., Feb. 13. The public was scheduled to hear remarks on community services, including cultural affairs, from 11-11:30 am at the president's office, 1 Centre St., 19th Floor.
--Rog