Update from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance…

This past Friday, Governor Rendell took to the podium to present another solution for closing the state’s ballooning deficit – trimming $500 million from his initial FY10 budget proposal back in February.

There is hope. The $14 million in funding for arts grants through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts remains. On the flip side, the agency’s administrative budget was cut by 12.1%.

The Governor’s proposal made big cuts to other cultural institutions throughout the state, including:

ALL funding for grants through the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission was eliminated, which includes cuts to area institutions such as the Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Penn Museum, and the Mercer Museum.

The state library subsidy was cut by 10%, or $7.5 million.

Support for non-state system universities was cut, including the University of the Arts.

Funding for public broadcasting still remains at zero.

This is certainly not the end, as the budget debate will shift back over AGAIN to the House, where they will consider both the Senate’s proposal and the Governor’s proposal. Here’s where YOU come in.

We still need to voice our support for arts and culture in the state budget. You’ve written thousands of e-mails, and now we need to get just a little louder.

It’s time to pick up the phone! That’s right – we’re looking for you to call your state senators and representatives to remind them that an investment in arts and culture is an investment in our future and the vitality of our communities.

Step one: Use our handy Legislator Lookup to find the contact information for your legislators: http://ga1.org/ct/Sd2TJzE1cRBV/.

You’ll need your nine digit zip code – if you have no idea what the last four digits are, consult the USPS website:
http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp !

Step two: After you’ve entered your nine digit zip code, you’ll find two tabs on the top: “Federal” and “State”. Click on the “State” tab for your local Senator and Representative. Call your legislators’ offices, using the following script:

Hello, my name is _____, and as a resident of (fill in your city/town here), I’m calling to ask for your support of arts and culture in the FY10 state budget through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, zoos, public broadcasting, and libraries.

Every dollar invested in arts and culture by the state government returns $2.50 in tax revenue. In Greater Philadelphia alone, there are 15 million visits to cultural organizations each year, and forty-three percent of these visits are free of charge. Most importantly, arts and culture employs 40,000 people in the region. Take these important cultural institutions away, and that’s a crippling loss of both jobs and tourism revenue.

The budget should reflect sound investments in community programs and services that support its residents. Arts and culture is a perfect match. Please consider the positive economic impact that museums, theaters, zoos, and libraries have on Pennsylvania’s bottom line.

Step three: Record your call! Once you’ve made a call to your Senator and Representative, please email sarac@philaculture.org, so we can keep track of how many of you have participated and how many calls a particular office has received. If you’re on Twitter, send us an “at reply” (@philaculture) to let us know you’ve participated, and urge your followers to do so! If you’re on Facebook, update your status message! Finally, there’s nothing wrong with  forwarding this to five of your friends via e-mail.

These phone calls are a small investment in the museums, concert halls, galleries, libraries, and public broadcasters all across the state. The budget process might be longer than we all would prefer, but we need to keep up our hard work. Take action now, or leave arts and culture to be potentially cut in closed-door budget sessions.