By SCOTT ROTHSCHILD, The Lawrence Journal-World
Topeka — Arts advocates Friday said
they were optimistic the Kansas Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback were
on track to provide funding for a new state arts agency.
"This is really significant," Sarah Fizell, spokeswoman for Kansas Citizens for the Arts, said.
Last year, Brownback vetoed $689,000 in funding for the Kansas Arts
Commission, saying that public tax dollars shouldn’t go to the arts. The
veto made Kansas the first state to stop state funding of the arts.
Kansas also lost $1.3 million in federal and regional matching funds.
Facing a public outcry over his veto, at the start of the 2012
legislative session, Brownback proposed merging the un-funded Kansas
Arts Commission and the Kansas Film Commission into a new entity called
the Creative Industries Commission and placing that under the Kansas
Department of Commerce.
In addition, Brownback proposed providing $200,000 from the Economic
Development Initiatives Fund, which is derived from gaming revenues.
A House-Senate budget conference committee has increased that amount
by $500,000 from the EDIF, bringing the total to $700,000. A separate
bill would establish the Creative Industries Commission.
"We think he (Brownback) is on board. He is the one who decided to
start the conversation," Fizell said, referring to his proposal at the
start of the 2012 legislative session.
Fizell said the funding and administrative resources of the Commerce
Department would help put Kansas back in place for federal and regional
matching funds next year. She said several other states have a similar
funding and structural model as the one proposed in Kansas.
"It's really great for Kansas," Fizell said. "It's really great for rural communities."
After Brownback's veto, arts supporters said rural communities would
be the ones to suffer most because they relied more than larger cities
on a statewide arts program to help them get grants.
