House Adds the Arts!
04/25/06
House Adds the Arts! Passes Bill to Conference Committee
Today, after a long and trying day of seemingly endless debate and parliamentary moves, the House approved the Sales Tax Dedication Constitutional Amendment with the arts included. THANK YOU to the many, many arts advocates who called legislators over the last week and who also contacted legislators via the Desktop Lobbyist . You guys rock!
Although the conventional wisdom for the past five months has been that the House would never accept the arts in this bill, we did get into the bill today via an amendment sponsored by Rep. Charron. In fact, we won a floor vote on the issue of whether or not we’d be in the bill by 115 to 16. Wow!
I’m not going to list the many amendments, votes and twists and turns here because it would literally take all day, but here’s some highlights:
Rep. Charron authored the amendment that got the arts into the bill. He had to offer it twice, first as an amendment to an amendment offered by Rep. Ozment, where we won the vote 115 to 16. Because of some parlimentary moves, Rep. Charron had to re-offer our amendment to add the arts a second time. Because we won by such a big margin on the first vote, they didn’t even bother to take a roll call vote the second time, and approved adding the arts on a voice vote.
Even Rep. Hackbarth, who had been opposing including the arts all session, stood up and asked the House to approve this amendment as a “compromise.” He approved it even though it took some funds away from the hooks and bullets crowd.
Over the course of the day, many representatives made speeches in support of the arts, including Rep. Dempsey, Gunther, Charron, Kelliher, Moe, Scalze, Sertich, Aaron Peterson, Erhardt, and Welti. Rep. Erhardt also offered an amendment on behalf of the arts. If you are a constituent, please thank them! Arts organizations mentioned as shining examples of why the arts should be funded included the Sheldon Theater in Redwing (Dempsey), a long list of organizations in Southern Minnesota (Peterson), and the Soap Factory’s Art Shanty ice fish house project on Medicine Lake (Kelliher).
Those representatives who made speeches against the arts included Rep. Krinkie, Emmer, and Seifert.
Unfortunately, the amount of money designated for the arts in this new House version is woefully small, and in fact dramatically smaller than the money designated for the arts in the Senate version. For this reason, we will be working for the rest of the session to have them accept the Senate version, or at least to get closer to the Senate version than the House version. Although the money is far from where we’d like it to be, it’s significant that the House affirmed the inclusion of the arts today.
So, how does the bill look now?
As I’ve said before, our consistent message is “Include the arts in the sales tax dedication bill!” The Minnesota Senate passed the bill with the arts included on April 3. Because we’ve passed the House floor with the arts in, we will have gotten to conference committee from both sides of the legislature, unlocking a door that people thought we couldn’t open. We have come an incredible distance with this bill but we still have miles to go before we’re done.
Who Benefits Now:
In the Senate, the bill benefits the arts, conservation, parks and clean water. In the arts portion of the bill, the funds would go to the Minnesota State Arts Board and Regional Arts Councils to go out in grants to artists, arts organizations and arts activities statewide. Also listed in the Senate bill are the Minnesota Historical Society, public broadcasting, the MN Science Museum, the MN Humanities Commission, the MN Film Board, and the MN Children’s Museum in St. Paul and the Duluth Children’s Museum.
The House bill also now includes sections for the arts, conservation, parks and clean water. In the House bill, however, the list of arts recipients was reduced to include just the Minnesota State Arts Board and public broadcasting, (excluding MPR).
How Much Money Are We Talking About?:
In the Senate, the bill would bring the arts around $26 million per year by FY09, and the House version, now $4 million (less than we have now!). These differences will be hammered out in conference committee. (Current funding to the MSAB and RACs is $8.5M. We had $12M annually before the massive cuts in 2003).
How Is It Paid For?:
Other than the change in beneficiaries, the biggest difference between the two bills now is that the Senate would ask the voters to approve a small additional sales tax (3/8th of 1%, or about 37 cents for each $100 spent). Instead, the House would just designate these funds from “current revenues.” It is this difference between the House and Senate bills that is the most controversial, and which may in the end still keep the bill from passing. In addtion, the House today added language from Rep. Olsen that says the legislature can’t raise any taxes or fees for the next seven years. This new language caused a dilemma for some of the arts supporters who then had to vote against the final passage of the bill on the House floor, (although it passed anyway on a vote of 78 to 55). This new language will also be a point of contention in the conference committee.
2. Background on Arts Bill
You may have heard about a bill that would dedicate sales tax revenue to hunting and angling, the environment, and the arts. This bill would dedicate a small percentage (3/8 of one percent) of state sales tax revenue to arts and culture, hunting and fishing conservation, parks and clean water. The dedication will be done via a constitutional amendment that will have to be passed by voters next November. Minnesota voters have a history of support for this type of referendum, such as the dedication of lottery proceeds to education and the environment. This year’s bill started as a long shot, but due to the grassroots activism organized by MCA and other cultural and outdoors groups, it gained support from members of both parties, and cleared several legislative hurdles.
The Senate has already passed the bill, sponsored by Sen. Dallas Sams. The House has also now passed the bill with different language and beneficiaries.
The Governor and leaders in the House have voiced support for the hunting/angling portion of the bill. (The House author is Rep. Hackbarth). Democratic leaders in the Senate support the inclusion of the arts, and in fact have stated that the bill will not pass unless the arts are in it. The House and Senate also differ in that the House dedicates current sales tax revenue and the Senate uses new revenue from a small increase in the sales tax.
The cost to the public is minimal. Although the bill changes frequently, as an additional fraction of the sales tax it would cost consumers only 25 to 37 cents for every $100 spent. Minnesota currently appropriates $8.5 million per year to the arts via grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Regional Arts Councils. As currently written, this bill could potentially double or triple this funding. (This would be more than the arts had before the recent big cuts, which was about $12 million). Although what is in the bill and what isn’t changes frequently, our message is this: The arts must be a part of any sales tax dedication bill.
You may be interested to know that the bill may dedicate a fraction of the revenue from the state sales tax to all or some of the following:
• Fish and wildlife resources
• Parks, trails and zoos, including: state parks
• State trails
• Metro regional parks and trails
• Non-metro regional parks and trails
• Minnesota’s zoos
• Clean water initiatives
• MN State Arts Board and Regional Arts Councils,
• MN Historical Society, (not currently in the House bill)
• Public Television and Public Radio, (MPR is not currently in the House bill, although AMPERS and public tv is still in)
• Science Museum of MN (not currently in the House bill)
• MN Film Board, and (not currently in the House bill)
• MN Humanities Commission, (not currently in the House bill)
• MN Children’s Museum and Duluth Children’s Museum (not currently in the House bill)
Sen. Dallas Sams believes that the bill gains more supporters by the inclusion of the arts. Sen. Cohen said that marrying the arts initiative to Sams’ conservation measure makes sense. Minnesota’s quality of life, he said, is defined by both of these pursuits. “This might be the only opportunity for years to try to provide an enhancement to these quality-of-life issues for Minnesota.”
Other reasons why this is a good idea:
• The Arts and Culture like the environment, hunting and fishing, make Minnesota an attractive place to live and provide fuel for our economic engine. All of the elements in the bill are about contributions toMinnesota’s great quality of life.
• In addition, the arts also contribute to the education of our children.
• All of the arts and culture areas took bigger hits in the 2003 deficit cuts than almost anything else in the state budget. This bill could restore and increase funding for the arts and culture beyond the funding we had before the cuts.
• While it would be a historic step forward for us, the new money would be a tiny fraction of the total state budget.
• If passed by the voters, the bill would increase arts funding and lock it in for the next 25 years.
Please ask your legislators to: “Include the arts in the sales tax dedication bill.” You can do it on-line in five minutes at our Desktop Lobbyist .
Things you need to know…
• MCA is funded entirely by the dues of arts advocates like you. Join MCA on-line securely here.
• MCA values your privacy, and will not sell or distribute your personal information to anyone.
• MCA is a nonpartisan statewide arts advocacy organization whose mission is to ensure opportunity for all people to have access to and involvement in the arts. MCA organizes the arts community and lobbies the Minnesota State Legislature and Congress on issues pertaining to the nonprofit arts. If you are interested in learning more about how to advocate for the arts, or how to activate people in your arts organization or community to lobby for the arts, please call us at 651-251-0868 or e-mail mca@mtn.org.
• State arts funding supports access to the arts for all Minnesotans. The state-funded Minnesota State Arts Board and eleven Regional Arts Councils provide grants and services in every Minnesota county for artists, arts organizations, arts projects and school artist residencies. For more information on regional or state grants, go to www.arts.state.mn.us/racs/index.htm
• Minnesota Citizens for the Arts does not discriminate on the basis of disability in admission or access to, or treatment or employment in, its services, programs or activities. Upon request, accommodation will be provided to allow individuals with disabilities to participate in all MCA services, programs and activities. Upon request, any of our information will be made available in alternative formats such as Braille, large print, audio tape and/or computer disk.
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