Posted on: Tuesday, June 29, 2004
EDITORIAL
Arts funding is far from a luxury
If one looks back at the most recent campaign for governor, it is clear that one consistent message from the eventual winner, Republican Linda Lingle, was fiscal prudence.
Lingle promised she would be a cautious steward of the state's budget, and she appears to be living up to that promise.
Case in point: Despite positive economic news and suggestions that state tax income growth will be slightly better than the 5.2 percent growth anticipated when the budget was written, Lingle has called for modest spending restrictions.
Among her proposals is an across-the-board 1 percent restriction for all discretionary expenses for all state departments, a 10 percent cutback in allotments for new collective bargaining increases and a three-month hiatus in state support for nonprofit agencies.
But in this period of belt-tightening, there is one area where the cuts seem to go beyond what is required. This is in the area of state support for the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, which is slated for a 61 percent slash.
In dollar terms, considering the state's multibillion-dollar budget, this may not seem like much. The Legislature allocated about $1.2 million for the foundation; Lingle would reduce funding by close to half.
And Lingle is not the first governor to reach into the foundation's budget when times are tough. Support for the foundation, which backs more than 110 nonprofit arts organizations, has diminished steadily over the years.
Politically, this is understandable. When core non-profit agencies that support basic health and welfare services to the needy are receiving cuts, it is difficult to defend pouring money into the arts.
But as Susan Kileen, executive director of the Hawai'i Consortium for the Arts, points out, cuts of this magnitude are shortsighted and self-defeating.
A relatively robust investment in the arts is not a luxury, it is an investment in the economic and social well-being of the entire community.
This is particularly true as Hawai'i seeks to diversify its tourism base by promoting "arts tourism," including a cultural season that focuses on the rich diversity of performing, plastic and indigenous arts that we have to offer.
One of the great prides of Hawai'i has been its groundbreaking "1 percent law" in which that small fraction of every state project is set aside for art, mostly decorative arts (such as those on display at the new state art museum in downtown Honolulu) but also for other expressions.
It is easy enough to set arts spending on a collision course with other demands, such as social services. And the proper impulse is to place basic human needs first.
But we will never succeed as a community if we do not recognize that it is important to feed both the soul and body. The arts are not a luxury; they are a crucial part of what makes this community special.
And putting money into the arts is not an indulgence; it is an investment in what we seek to sell to the rest of the world: a hospitality culture that celebrates the best of what we create with our minds, hands and hearts.
The governor has many difficult decisions to make. Our hope is that as she makes these terrible choices, she recognizes that the arts are not a luxury but rather a core necessity of any place worth living in and inviting others to visit.
