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THE
FOLLOWING EDITORIAL APPREARED IN THE BOSTON PHOENIX ON MAY
21, 2009.
A self-inflicted wound
Why massive cuts to cultural spending are counterproductive
By EDITORIAL
Layoffs, salary reductions, and budget cuts have become distressingly
commonplace. There is simply not enough money to meet operating expenses.
Sacrifice is more than the order of the day; it is a survival tool
— one employed by businesses, nonprofits, and government to combat
their shared problems.
Tough choices, however, do not mean that budget cutters should
shoot themselves — or their customers, employees, and constituents
— in the foot. Which is what the 57 percent cut in funding for the
Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC), originally proposed by the
State Senate Ways and Means Committee, would have done.
The MCC plays a major role in the state's culture and tourism business,
supporting 17 of our top 25 attractions with grants for operations
and facilities.
Economists years ago determined that the arts contribute more to
the Massachusetts economy than all of Boston's professional sports
teams combined. This fact is forgotten in times of economic crisis.
Culture is deemed "soft" and therefore expendable. But
nothing could be further from the truth.
Tourism is the state's third biggest industry, supporting 120,000
jobs. According to the latest available figures, it and travel contribute
$14.2 billion to the Massachusetts economy per year. Those are hardly
squishy numbers.
Still, Massachusetts is losing tourism market share to such states
as Texas and New Jersey, which are acting smarter. Over the last
eight years, it lost $5 billion — equal to $200 million in tax revenue
— because of penny-wise but pound-foolish thinking.
What's culture have to do with this? Visitors who come to Massachusetts
to sample its history and use its cultural institutions spend twice
as much as the average tourist. Those are leverage dollars, yielding
a return on public investment of more than five to one. In good
times that would be reasonable. In bad times it should be gold.
To the average Joe and Joanne in the street, the MCC's original
budget of $12.65 million may sound like a lot. In reality, it constitutes
less than one tenth of one percent of state spending. Cuts across
the board are needed. But big reductions, under any circumstances,
are unreasonably disproportionate.
As the Phoenix goes to press, the State Senate has restored $4.3
million, leaving a more manageable gap to negotiate. That's a move
in the right direction.
Throughout the budget struggle, however, the performance of State
Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, of Boston, has been disappointing to the
point of shameful in this regard. As chair of the Joint Committee
on Tourism, Arts, and Cultural Development, one would think that
she would be leading efforts to reverse the ill-conceived budget
cuts. That job has fallen to State Senator Robert O'Leary from Cape
Cod.
Chang-Díaz's district receives a bit more than $1 million in MCC
funds, a sizable portion of which goes to innovative educational
programs aimed at assisting at-risk youth. These programs constitute
a vital sub-category of MCC spending. If the greater good of the
state is not enough to motivate Chang-Díaz, perhaps political self-interest
will.
The bigger budget battle
All sorts of suggestions for raising revenues have been bandied
about on Beacon Hill; everyone seems to have a different solution.
State senators have now joined their House colleagues in opting
for a large sales-tax increase — moving up from 5 percent to 6.25
percent and expanding the base on which sales taxes are paid. But,
remarkably, the two chambers are more than a quarter-billion dollars
apart in their estimates of how much revenue that increase would
generate. The State Senate, which is counting on just $633 million,
also added a retail liquor-sales tax and a local-options meals tax,
which will let Boston and other municipalities raise their own extra
revenues. It will be interesting to see whether the House goes along
with those additional taxes.
Both chambers, however, have rejected the much more sensible gas-tax
increase proposed by Governor Deval Patrick — who was in Washington
yesterday for the historic announcement of new national fuel-efficiency
and emissions standards. The White House ceremony demonstrated that
agreement is possible when working on reducing gasoline consumption.
The state legislature has not gotten that news.
© 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group
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