|
| |
|
|
BABY STEPS
State funding for the arts continues its slow recovery
BY ADAM REILLY
|
|
|
|
|
The Massachusetts Cultural Council may never see its state funding return to $19.1 million, the level it reached before being slashed in the post–September 11 economic downturn. But things seem to be moving in the right direction. The 2006 fiscal-year (FY) budget signed by Governor Mitt Romney last week raises funding for the MCC — a statewide organization that promotes the use of arts and culture as an economic-development tool — to $9.6 million, up from $8.3 million in FY ’05 and $7.3 million in FY ’04. This particular increase has seemed likely ever since the House of Representatives recommended it back in May (see "Art Citizens," This Just In, May 6). What’s surprising, though, is that Romney chose not to respond to the legislature’s recommendation with a veto. After all, the governor’s own budget proposal would have eliminated the year-old John and Abigail Adams Arts Fund for economic development, thereby dropping the MCC’s budget back to $7.3 million. But when the legislature’s final budget hit his desk, Romney deferred to the House and Senate. Proof, perhaps, that the governor recognizes the economic potential of arts and culture — or maybe just that he has other things on his mind.
|
