Budget drama

An interesting model to report upon would be the anomaly that exists in a terrific town with which I am affiliated---Mount Vernon, Ohio. This community of barely 20,000 folks manages to support at least 4, non profit theater organizations, and a world-class performing artist series (Knox County Community Concerts), MOUNT VERNON PLAYERS, Jacklin Productions, Right Brain Prod., Orange Barrel Productions (forgive my omissions)...in addition to other arts organizations, all of which are financially sound.

Contact the Knox CVB or the Mount Vernon Players---they have ridden thru these tough time, and I am confident will continue to do so---with 99% volunteer leadership!

I'm sorry, Mr. Stoner, but Mt. Vernon's arts groups do not compare to Columbus' in neither size, quality or prestige. When was the last time any of Mt. Vernon's arts groups visited NYC to rave reviews?

The only thing this article tells me is that some of the corporations in this city are not stepping up to the plate to support arts in this city. They should take the lead of Battelle, Huntington, and others and step up to the plate and make this city a truly first-class one by supporting its arts. That so many of our arts organizations are having problems in a city with 6 Fortune 500 companies and 15 Fortune 1000 companies is shameful.

Add to this list another major cause -- lack of competent board leadership committed to friend-making and fundraising on a consistent and committed basis. If Board leaders are not passionate about the art form, and if they say they "won't or can't" fund or friend-raise, why are they on these non-profit boards?????

Well, if they are all running in the red, perhaps that means they are not the "leading" arts organizations after all.

At the end of the day every arts organization must balance patron, public, corporate and government support against spending. And any organization which relies too heavily on any revenue source other than patron sales is willingly placing itself in harms way; donations are always the first spending to be jettisoned in a financial crisis but patrons often rely on the arts experience to help cope with just these kinds of changes. The arts must be responsive, first and foremost, to their patrons. All too often this is not the case.

That being said, this list does include some extraordinary organizations that contribute meaningfully to our quality of life but that does not mean these same groups are doing their best to operate efficiently or to serve their patron base loyally. Likewise, this list excludes some extraordinary arts groups that have made equally proud contributions to our community and who are dedicated to balancing the bottom line and remaining mindful of the needs and desires of their audience.

This is certainly a difficult time but the groups that are committed to their audience and not just to their vision will survive and thrive.

Why the opinion by a conservative anti-arts member of what? Buckey Institute for Public Policy Solutions? What does his opinion have to do with the news presented in that article? Why is his opinion important? The last three paragraphs of random opinion take away from an informative article. Was mgrossberg instructed by Dispatch management to voice that opinion through Marc Kelmer's quote, or is it mgrossberg's opinion?

times are tough all over for arts patrrons weather it be personal or corprate level. Too suggest the support is not forthcoming at levels necessary on the corporate level is shortsighted. Belt tighting is going on at every level in this recession be it ien the boardroom or kitchen. People and companies are trying to get thru to better times. There is not a unlimited pot of gold to keep everything going until better times

Mr. Maneri, I'm on your side! What is up with the quote outta nowhere from some unknown Buckeye Institute person about arts subsidies!? How many more outrageous "takes" must the arts patrons of Columbus endure? This topic should be positive and hopeful but I've yet to hear it from the Dispatch.

In addition to a drop in donations and ticket revenue, many arts organizations also have seen their endowments drop by 30 to 50 percent. This is the result of the stock market decline and the general slowing of the economy. Many arts organizations have made decisions to cut to the bone, and many boards are responding with sound leadership.

The best way for the general population to help is to attend local productions and support local arts professionals. Take a bit of a risk -- don't always go to the crowd-pleasers. But do attend, and attend more than once a year.

City and County leasdership has vastly ignored the arts for years. Why don't the arts organizations get the same public support as the zoo and library system? Both the zoo and library have been voted the best in the country, but you know why???? They get direct property tax support and the arts orgs in this city do not get direct property tax support. It is very important to have a strong art culture in a city this size because it attracts new residents and new corportaions because of the quality of life.

symphonyfan wrote:

They should take the lead of Battelle, Huntington, and others and step up to the plate and make this city a truly first-class one by supporting its arts. That so many of our arts organizations are having problems in a city with 6 Fortune 500 companies and 15 Fortune 1000 companies is shameful.

Huntington is 2 billion in debt to the US govt. tarp fund. Huntington stock has gone from 24 to 4 in 2 years. Huntington should eliminate its funding for the arts.

The organization for whom Marc Kilmer works, the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, is a mini-Heritage Foundation, which means all of its research and public policy solutions are going to be skewered to the far right of the political spectrum. Interestingly, the Institute itself is a non-profit organization. According to its most recent 990 filing with the IRS (required of all non-profits) the Institute has a $700,000-plus budget, all of it made possible by contributors. But nowhere on that report or on their website do they list who their contributors are. Who do you suppose they could be? Well, here is one clue, also from their 990: the Institute lists as an "independent contractor" one Ken Blackwell of Cincinnati. Yes indeed - our former Secretary of State and would-be Governor. Mr. Blackwell's compensation for "consulting":$83,000 .

So it's pretty obvious the only arts and entertainment the Buckeye Institute will endorse is watching Fox News or listening to Rush Limbaugh.

Prop 13, the government is not stealing from you. No one is holding a gun to you head. You are paying, as do I and every other citizen, taxes, for the services and programs provided for the betterment of the entire community. Just because you may not use a particular program or service does not mean it is not worthwhile.

I pay property taxes, the majority of which support schools - yet I do not have a child in school. But I accept the fact that good schools are a necessary and vital part of our community.

The funding the government provides for the arts is relatively small, and organizations that do receive funding are required to raise matching funds. For every tax dollar spent on the arts,$52 comes back to the community involved.

The arts is an example of private-public partnerships at its best.

Prop 13, in the ranking of state/local tax burdens, Ohio ranks 20th both in average tax dollars levied and percentage of income levied. So we are right in the middle.

Ohio's prosperity was tied largely to manufacturing and that left the state for reasons other than taxes.

Ronald Reagan was the first president to persuade people that government and taxes were evil, and that if taxes and regulations were lowered the benefits would trickle down to everyone. That has proved to be a false theory, never more so than by the Ohio legislature under Republican rule in 2005 when it enacted the lowering of state income taxes.

Do you remember why they did that? "To save industries and jobs." Well, the industries and jobs have left anyway.

If you want to attract business and industry, you need a thriving arts community.

Or look at it this way: when Nationwide or Battelle or another company goes looking for people to come to work here, what do they talk about? Sure they talk about OSU football - but they also talk about the fact that the Columbus Metropolitan Library and the Columbus Zoo are the #1 rated institutions of their kind. They talk about the Short North Gallery Hop, COSI, the Museum of Art, Thurber House, and the Ballet.

The Ohio Arts Council's subsidy is 4/10,000 of 1% of the total state budget:$22-million out of $54-billion. That $22-million is then turned around into more than $1.1-billion into the general economy.

We should get such a return on every state program.

David in Hilliard wrote:

Ronald Reagan was the first president to persuade people that government and taxes were evil, and that if taxes and regulations were lowered the benefits would trickle down to everyone. That has proved to be a false theory, never more so than by the Ohio legislature under Republican rule in 2005 when it enacted the lowering of state income taxes.

You been living in fantasy land again????

Olesparky: No, I don't live in Fantasy Land. I live in a place where I realize the goods, services, and programs I feel are important to establishing a healthy and prosperous community and a good and attainable quality of life for the citizens therein cost money in the form of taxes.

I don't like taxes any more than the next person - but I do like having adequate police and fire protection, safe streets, good schools, clean and safe parks, libraries, the arts, and programs that take care of people who fall thru the cracks of society. I like knowing that if I or you, Olesparky, or our mutual friend Prop 13, has chest pains in the middle of the night there'll be a dispatcher on the other end to answer the 911 call and send the paramedics who might save our lives or the life of a loved one. How is something like that paid for? With taxes.

Columnist George Will, who certainly cannot be mistaken for a liberal, said that one of America's problems is that Americans want a high service, low tax government: the proverbial "free lunch." This has been fed by politicians who have promised us we can cut and cut and cut taxes, that we can do away with regulations on business and that the free market will magically take care of everything.

I don't ascribe to that theory. I don't think "government is the problem" for the simple reason that as Abe Lincoln said the government is WE THE PEOPLE and if government is bad and evil, it must then follow that "we the people" are, too.

At least we can vote our elected leaders out if they fail to perform. Or if they dishonest or corrupt, like Marc Dann, we can show the door early. Compare that to corporate America and a company like Enron, where Ken Lay and his cohorts knew the end was coming and took the opportunity to line their pockets while leaving employees, retirees, and stockholders penniless. How did they do that? Because the board was stacked with their pals, same as with every other major corporate entity.

You may or may not own stock in a company or a mutual fund. But there is one corporation every man, woman, and child owns stock in, and that's your government - national, state, and local.

Sorry to have gotten off topic from the arts question. But ultimately, whether its the arts, or libraries, or schools, or parks, it comes down to this: do we as citizens care about something larger than our own self-interest? Do we care about the greater good of the community, or are we thinking only of Number 1?

Bail them out, bail this thread out, bail the crew out... bail everybody out! That said, now whos gonna pay for it? Nobodys gonna pay for it, poppa obama pulls money out of the air. Wheeeeee!

Proposition 13 wrote:

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Neither do I. I don't want or need very many services and I don't want people sticking their hands in my pockets for anything other than the basics.
Money is life. To make money that means you have to work. When you work, that means you have less time to spend with your family, friends, loved ones. And when they take money from you, to put it in the hands of someone else, that makes you a slave.
I'm not so much a radical that I don't see the importance of culture, of the arts, and of government services. But the name of the game is GOOD-PAYING JOBS and when your tax rate (and labor rate) is so high that you are losing GOOD-PAYING JOBS to other states (and we are), that means you have to LOWER YOUR COST OF DOING BUSINESS TO START LURING THOSE JOBS BACK.
Again, that 2% difference doesn't sound like much to the proletariat maybe but it's still 25% higher than Texas. And maybe it doesn't matter to the average schlep making $38k a year, but it does matter greatly when MILLIONS are on the line.
That is my point and why I keep posting here, jokes aside. Every single one of your proposals is noble and worthwhile. But the point I want to focus all you people on is that WE HAVE NO MONEY and raising our taxes would be like MACY'S RAISING THEIR PRICES. Both Ohio and Macy's need to LOWER them!!!

i can't believe that i half agree with you prop but i do on this point,,ohio needs tax incentives to create jobs but i do not believe in handing them a blank check. by that i mean i do not think they should be given a flat cut ,,,give them an X amount per job created ,with the following conditions,the job has to pay at least 30 grand a year(hardly an extravagant living wage),the job must provide benefits,and the company agrees to remain in ohio for a period of time(i would throw out the term of 20 years). one problem we all overlook is that companies get tax abatements from local govts and few years later jump ship because a suburb offers a better deal,it was a huge issue in franklin county since the mid 90's.