State Arts Funding: Good News! There Isn’t That Much Bad News
Posted by Justin Knabb On February - 16 - 2012 on Americans for the Arts blog.


Justin Knabb
While state legislative sessions are just getting underway in the new year, perpetual campaigning for the election is no doubt leaving everyone already feeling cranky and cynical (or is that just me?).

But take heart, advocates! Despite the cornucopia of GOP candidate positions on public arts funding—ranging anywhere from mild tolerance to total abhorrence—President Obama just proposed an increase in NEA funding!

And on the state level, while some familiar faces are making waves, several states are receiving some great surprises and proposals for steady funding:

Connecticut
Last month, Connecticut’s Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) announced the launch of a $3.1 million local-level creative placemaking initiative in July. Gov. Dannel Malloy’s FY13 budget recommends eliminating all direct art support and redirecting those funds to a statewide marketing campaign that would include tourism. The state’s budget office indicates that arts organizations will be able to compete for $14 million in funding with other programs in the DECD.

Florida
The state legislature is proposing an increase to Florida Division of Cultural Affairs Cultural and Museum Grants. These grants were appropriated $2 million for the current fiscal year, and for FY13 the House and Senate are currently recommending $3,025,000 and $5,050,000, respectively.

Kansas
After zeroing out the state arts commission last year, Governor Sam Brownback reversed his decision and proposed $200,000 for the upcoming fiscal year. However, these funds would be for a new Kansas Creative Industries Commission, a merger of the Kansas Arts Commission and the Kansas Film Commission, housed under the Department of Commerce.

Maryland
Governor Martin O’Malley is recommending level funding for the Maryland State Arts Council (MSCAC) in FY13. Funding for MSAC has remained steady at $13.3 million for several years.

Massachusetts
Another level funding proposal comes from Governor Deval Patrick. The governor’s FY 13 budget requests a $9.2 million appropriation for the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The agency is also requesting a $500,000 supplemental appropriation for a creative education initiative. The House will present its budget in April, with the Senate’s to follow in May.

Michigan
Additional arts funding could be coming to the state after Governor Rick Snyder recently recommended a threefold increase in funding for the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. The governor’s announcement comes on the heels of ArtServe Michigan’s release of the Creative State Michigan study that documents the multi-million dollar economic impact the arts have within the state.

Missouri
After receiving no general fund appropriations from the legislature last year, Governor Jay Nixon is proposing $600,000 for the state arts council. For several years, the council has had to rely on funding through its cultural trust fund, drawing it down significantly. Advocates are requesting $3 million from the legislature for the council.

Minnesota
Arts funding received a $2 million boost for the FY12-13 biennium thanks to a bump in Legacy Amendment funding, but future funding could be in jeopardy as the governor and legislature try to find a way to fund a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings.

New Hampshire
An early House committee attempt to eliminate the Department of Cultural Resources (DCR) failed, much like last year’s. However, DCR funding must still pass the full House of Representatives, and the Senate. Also in play is an attempt to defund the state’s percent for art program. These measures will be voted on February 21.

Pennsylvania
Governor Tom Corbett is recommending just over $9 million for the state arts council, level with the current year’s funding. Last year, the council’s budget survived a House of Representatives amendment to strip 70% of its funding.

South Carolina
In her new budget, Governor Nikki Haley once again calls for eliminating funding to the South Carolina Arts Commission. The legislature overrode her veto of nearly $2 million in funding last year, and a similar battle could unfold over the next several months.

Nonprofits Push Back Against Limits On CEO Pay

Nonprofit groups pushed back during a hearing today in Albany on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposals to combat excessive pay for top executives, saying the plans would do little to root out what they insist are rare cases of abuse.

Last month, the governor issued an executive order setting a $199,000 cap on state funding for executive salaries, while also requiring that 75 percent of state dollars are spent on actual services, not administrative costs. State agencies have three months to comply with the order.

The order came after a New York Times article last August, which detailed the story of two brothers who made close to a million dollars a year as top executives of a New York nonprofit for the developmentally disabled.

But at the hearing, James Lytle, a partner at Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, which represents more than a dozen nonprofit organizations, testified before the Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations that it made no sense to have a one-size-fits-all limitation — a cap he argued would hurt non-profit efforts to recruit qualified executives.

“No evidence has been advanced by anyone so far that would suggest that these abuses are either widespread or particularly unpunished when they have occurred,” Lytle said.

Nonprofit representatives acknowledged that some CEOs receive extravagant pay and benefits, but said the governor’s order wouldn’t change much, since the big players would use their influence to get waivers or shift pots of money around to minimize the impact.

Doug Saur, the CEO of the New York Council of Nonprofits, said that million-dollar executives wouldn’t see any changes because the state isn’t capping salaries, just how much state money can go into those salaries.

“That’s an accounting issue,” he said. “Who’s going to get hurt are the community action programs or some of the smaller organizations that don’t raise a lot of money, that are mostly government funded, and there are no alternative sources to go and do that.”

Those testifying from the non-profit world said that setting a specific limit on the state’s contribution to executive salaries fails to take into account the multiple factors that go into determining annual pay, from the size of an organization’s budget to the complexity of its structure, to comparable salaries for similar private sector jobs.

“None of the conversation today has been about performance,” Saur said.

Some lawmakers suggested other remedies to the abuses besides the Cuomo-imposed cap. Sen. Carl Marcellino, who chairs the Investigations Committee, said another solution was to demand greater accountability from the boards of nonprofit entities, which in some cases are made up of family members or appointees of the chief executive.

“It’s been my experience with a lot of these governing boards that a lot of the membership is appointed by the CEOs of the organizations themselves,” said Marcellino. “In many cases, they’re just rubber stamps.”

Link to article:

http://www.cityandstateny.com/nonprofits-push-limits-ceo-pay/

NYCON CEO Doug Sauer Testifies at Public Hearing on Executive Compensation at Not-for-Profits

Public Hearing: To examine executive compensation at not-for-profit organizations receiving State funding and the actions needed to prevent State tax dollars from being wasted on excessive salaries
Senate Standing Committee on Investigations and Government Operations
Chair: Senator Carl L. Marcellino

NY Council of Nonprofits CEO Doug Sauer shares feedback and testimony on the Governor's Executive Order addressing Executive Compensation for Not-for-Profits. You can hear Doug's comments beginning at 49:30. Watch for more from NYCON shortly. Interested in joining the NYCON mailing list? Subscribe here.

Speak Up for the Arts! Arts Advocacy Day - February 14, 2012

Arts supporters from all around New York State will visit their State Legislators in Albany on Tuesday, February 14 to speak up for the arts on Arts Advocacy Day 2012.

Visual artists, authors, actors, musicians, dancers, and arts professionals of all kinds will join representatives from arts councils, museums, and cultural organizations to request strong support for NYSCA - the New York State Council on the Arts. This is an important opportunity to remind our State Senators and Assembly members how valuable arts and cultural services are in communities from Long Island to Buffalo, and from Plattsburgh to Binghamton. The services and grants provided by NYSCA help to support large and small cultural institutions and arts programs across the State of New York. These organizations and activities create jobs, enhance tourism, and are an essential ingredient in small rural towns and large urban centers.

Join the chorus and let your voice be heard! Plan to be in Albany on February 14 to let your Legislators know that you support State funding for the arts. Please visit www.ArtsNYS.org to learn more about Arts Advocacy Day.

FULTON COUNTY REGIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DISCUSS POSSIBLE AFFILIATION

Boards of Directors come together to investigate joining forces; retain facilitation and legal assistance

Amsterdam, NY and Gloversville, NY–The Boards of Directors of the Fulton County Regional Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce announced today that they are in the process of investigating the possibility of a merger/affiliation of the two Chambers of Commerce. They also announced that to move the process forward, they have retained the services of facilitation and legal assistance from the New York Council of Nonprofits, Inc.
“With the departure of both Executives of the Chambers (former Presidents Deb Auspelmyer and Wally Hart), we thought it a great time to look at the possibility of joining forces,” said Chuck Schwartz, Chair, Montgomery County Chamber Board of Directors. “We always want to be proactive for our members in looking at ways to maximize their Chamber membership.”
“There is definitely strength in numbers,” said Mark Finkle, Chair, Fulton County Chamber Board of Directors, “and with an affiliation with Montgomery County, our business communities become a much stronger voice in our region, in Albany, and even in Washington, DC.”
Both Chambers’ Boards of Directors have appointed from their membership an Affiliation Task Force; in Fulton County the Task Force members are Mark Finkle (Stevenson Distributing, LLC), Terri Easterly (Coldwell Banker-Arlene M. Sitterly), Amy Karas (Ruby & Quiri), Jim Landrio (Holiday Inn of Johnstown-Gloversville), Larry Raike (WalMart DC #6096), Diana Marshall (Gloversville Sewing Center) and as a non-voting member Terry Swierzowski, the Chamber’s Interim President. From the Montgomery County Chamber, the Task Force is comprised of Brennen Parker (Rose & Kiernan), Vic Giulianelli (St. Mary’s Healthcare), Lesley Lanzi (FMCC), Judy Phetteplace (Judith Ann Realty), Mike Decker (Liberty Enterprises), Kevin McClary (Amsterdam Recorder), and the Chamber’s Interim President Peter Capobianco, who is a non-voting member.
The issue of affiliation will be discussed at both Chambers’ Annual Dinner Meetings which are scheduled for Thursday, January 19 for the Fulton County Chamber at the Holiday Inn of Johnstown-Gloversville and for the Montgomery County Chamber on Friday, January 27 at the River Stone Manor in Scotia. Members of both Affiliation Task Forces will be at both events to elicit discussion about the issue from members in attendance. In addition, both Chambers will hold informational sessions about the possible affiliation. These will be scheduled for after the Annual Dinner meetings.
The next steps in the Affiliation process: The Affiliation Task Force will pursue a Due Diligence Analysis of a wide variety of corporate documents, budgets, program operations and all the internal controls in both Chambers to determine the best structural manner to affiliate, making the same recommendation to the respective Boards of Directors, who will then seek the permissions of their respective Memberships to formalize the affiliation in the Spring of 2012. The New York Council of Nonprofits, Inc. will facilitate the same and file the required documents with the New York State Department of State after the formal action of the two Memberships.

Report: Upstate pays state less in taxes than it receives

Upstate New York pays the state less in taxes and other revenue than it receives back in state expenditures, according to a report from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the University at Albany.

About 24 percent of taxes and revenues collected by New York state in 2010 came from the upstate region, according to the report, titled “Giving and Getting.” But upstate New York received about 35 percent of state spending.

The Rockefeller Institute classified upstate New York as including 48 counties that are not part of the Capital Region, New York City, or the five-county downstate suburbs linked to New York City.

The Capital Region — made up of Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties — also paid the state less than it received. It paid just below 4 percent of the state’s total taxes and receipts and received 7 percent of state spending.

Meanwhile, New York City and its downstate suburbs paid the state more than they received in expenditures.

New York City contributed more than 45 percent of all state taxes and revenues. It received about 40 percent of expenditures in return, according to the report.

Downstate suburbs in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam counties gave the state 24 percent or 27 percent of its taxes and revenues, depending on calculation methods used. Those areas took home around 18 percent of state funding, the Rockefeller Institute report found.

The report calculated receipts paid and expenditures received in each region using various methods — by place of residence and by place of work. Each method showed that upstate New York and the Capital Region received more than they paid, while New York City and its downstate suburbs paid more than they received.

Upstate New York would have lost between $8.1 billion and $9.3 billion if its share of state-funded expenditures matched the revenues it contributed, according to the Rockefeller Institute. The Capital Region would have lost about $2.7 billion.

New York City would have received an additional $4.1 billion to $6.1 billion in state funding if state expenditures matched revenues from the city, the report found. Downstate suburbs would have gained $4.6 billion to $7.9 billion.

The New York City–based Citizens Budget Commission, which describes itself as a nonprofit civic organization focused on changing the finances and services of New York City and New York state government, commissioned the report. It was supported by a grant from the New York Community Trust, a New York City–based community foundation with more than $1.9 billion in almost 2,000 individual charitable funds.

Analysis: Cuomo's focus to be running gov't in '12

The Wall Street Journal offered this perspective on Cuomo and 2012:

After a year of political wins including a cap on property tax growth and the legalization of gay marriage, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he even managed to surprise himself this year.

"I think it has been a remarkably different year for this government on every level," Cuomo told The Associated Press in an extensive interview. "I'm proud of the way it's acting, proud of the way it's performing and I think performance is probably more important than ever before."

He said he accomplished practically his entire four-year legislative agenda that propelled him to office a year ago. It included a rare spending cut, elimination of a near-record $10 billion deficit that he inherited, a 2 percent cap on the growth in property taxes, the gay marriage law, and, after dropping his no-tax pledge, a Cuomo-led tax revision that raises billions from a millionaire tax while providing a modest but rare cut for 4.4 million middle-class New Yorkers. His approval rating was a sky-high 68 percent last week in a Quinnipiac University poll.

So for 2012, he's going to turn to tinkering and overhauling under the hood of state government, the way he does with his classic '75 Corvette and '68 Pontiac GTO.

Not everything has been a clear win so far. Cuomo is still criticized for cutting back-room deals after promising the most open government in state history. His bills, including a much-needed ethics bill, have gaping holes despite the self-congratulations of Albany leaders. His income tax overhaul this month raised taxes on the very rich, after he promised no new taxes because they would drive employers out of state. His tax break for the middle class drew big headlines, but it will mean just $300 or so for most families, as he increases spending he vowed to cut. And his new ethics enforcement board has had one of the rockiest of starts, including holding a secret meeting.

But his public appeal remains near historic highs.

Look for hints of a second act in the weird way Cuomo unwinds:

After back-to-back private negotiations with seasoned legislative leaders and countless calls to allies and foes, he steps out of the thick plastered walls and 4-inch thick hardwood doors that protect his office to mull over the sanding and painting by workers in the Capitol's halls.

He adopts the role of a very hands-on, $179,000-a-year laborer intent on stripping down and restoring the ancient pile of a capitol. His father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, used to nearly chain himself to the place 20 years ago with Andrew at his side, a 23-year-old unpaid confidant and strategist. Today, the younger Cuomo can be seen pointing out the places portraits should hang in the Hall of Governors outside his office, scaling the spider web of scaffolding in towers for a personal review or taking to the roof of the massive Capitol.

Expect more of the craftsman Cuomo in 2012 as he says he'll turn from pushing landmark legislation to making the state's massive agencies with 170,000 workers, an endless fleet of vehicles, banks of computers and tons of other resources work better.

"I like to build," said Cuomo, who once founded a nonprofit organization that built homes for the poor and served as federal housing secretary. "I have seized this building (the capitol) as a metaphor for the whole process.

"To me, the place is entirely different than it was 20 years ago — not for the good. I believe there has been a deterioration, a pervasive deterioration in the performance, the integrity, the pride in the culture," Cuomo said. "There's so much work to do and people don't even notice. In my mind's eye, I see the building as it was 20 years go ... you know when you live in a house for a long time and you don't notice the paint fading and then you move a picture?"

As he did for complex legislative proposals, he now reduces the detailed problem of running government better to a simple proposition.

"You should reorganize first, then cut," he said, turning on its head the process of cutting state spending over the past three years. "Don't use the budget to make management decisions. Make management decisions, then do your budget."

Cuomo was widely credited with doing just that as President Bill Clinton's secretary for housing and urban development. He even makes a case that he might enjoy rebuilding state government, even if it comes with fewer headlines and less attention than his first year.

Cuomo started the year with a 70 percent favorability rating in polls and ends with a 72 percent favorability rating, a rare height and even more unusual show of staying power.

"The governor has had an incredibly successful first year in office from a policy perspective, from a political perspective, and from a perspective of how the voters of this state see him," said Steven Greenberg of the Siena poll.

There are, Greenberg notes, still landmines to navigate.

Among them is whether to approve "hydrofracking," the process in which chemicals and water are forced into shale to tap a natural gas reserve deep in the Southern Tier. It's seen as a gold rush by some and a threat to the environment by others. He also will have to decide whether to accept or veto new election district lines. Traditionally, the majorities of the Senate and Assembly contort the lines to protect their power, a practice Cuomo vowed as a candidate to veto. But now these majorities are needed allies.

He also promised to create private-sector jobs. And if his legislative agenda is slim, he will be reminded of some big campaign promises that he hasn't touched as governor. Key among them is campaign finance reform, desired by every candidate but few incumbents.

"I think Gov. Cuomo has a potential to have a very good second year," Greenberg said. "But he also has the potential to run into some road blocks and start to see the incredibly strong support he has with voters weakening a bit. It could turn on a dime."