The Ohio Arts Council needs our help too.

Here is some more unfortunate budget news, this time from the Ohio Citizens for the Arts' website. After reading the explanation of what the Ohio Arts Council faces in the way of proposed budget cuts, you are hereby encouraged to add their plight to your growing list of gripes to relay to our lawmakers in Columbus.

The following was taken directly from www.ohiocitizensforthearts.org:

There are now three working versions of the state budget – Executive, House, and Senate. Each scenario is a reduction to the Ohio Arts Council’s budget as compared to the original FY 2008/2009 budget. This is not good news for the arts in Ohio.

We are all aware of the terrible fiscal situation the State of Ohio finds itself. And the Ohio Arts Council already has done its part by sustaining significant administrative and subsidy (grant) cuts through budget reductions in FY 2008/2009 and the initial proposed FY2010/2011 budget. Further cuts will cripple the Ohio Arts Council’s ability to serve the people of Ohio.

The Conference Committee (composed of three members each from the House and Senate) will be working out the final version of the budget in the next few weeks. We need your help NOW. Please take action by contacting your Senator and Representative and the Governor to request that they provide adequate funding to the Ohio Arts Council. Ohio Citizens for the Arts set a goal of $25,000,000 for the Ohio Arts Council appropriation for the FY 2010/2011 budget and we must aim to reach this goal.

Please do your part to make sure your legislators in the House and Senate, and Governor Strickland understand:

The arts mean business to Ohio and contribute significantly to the education of our children.

• The creative industries bring more than $25 BILLION in revenue to the State which contributes to economic competitiveness and recovery for Ohio.
• The creative industries support 231,200 jobs in Ohio.
• The creative industries generate $1.06 billion in state and local tax revenues.
• The arts and arts education contribute to the kind of imaginative thinking, problem solving, skills and innovation that Ohio needs to be competitive in the 21st century global workforce.

As a way to help you better understand the impact of the possible budget scenarios, the Ohio Arts Council has provided a comparison document that shows the possible funding amounts to artists and arts organizations using the final FY2009 grant amounts, and the Executive, House, and Senate versions of the budget. Please take a moment to review the reports, they are sorted by Senate and House district so that you can have full picture of the impact the various budget scenarios mean to you, your organization, and the region: Effects of Budget Proposals. If you would like to see how the Ohio Citizens for the Arts suggested budget goal would affect your grant click here.

Please pass this message on to your trustees, members, colleagues, and other interested individuals and urge them to contact their legislators and the Governor as well. For more resources and talking points visit the Ohio Arts Council’s Making the Case page.

If you have any questions please contact Ohio Citizens for the Arts at 614/221-4064 or Donna Collins at donnacollins@ohiocitizensforthearts.org

Lobby for your library!

As our local libraries here in Ohio face a debilitating budget cut ammounting to a 50% reduction in state funding, I am saddened by the short-sighted approach Governor Strickland took in proposing his solution to Ohio's budget woes. Instead of taking a measured approach and reducing spending evenly throughout the public service sector, he devastated our libraries, one of the most important resources to out-of-work Ohioans and their families in this tough economy, and authorized legalized gambling, an idea which the good people of Ohio have repeatedly defeated at the polls.

It is unrealistic to assume that all state intstitutions would be unaffected by the budget deficit facing legislators in Columbus, but by taking one of our most valuable and free public efucational resources and cutting it off at the knees, the Governor is cutting off his nose to spite his face. Fifty percent budget cuts will close library branches, limit hours, reduce staff (increasing unemployment), and diminish vital services across the state.

I was unemployed for a time seven years ago, a victim of the tough economic times faced by nonprofits after 9/11. I waited the appropriate number of days after my layoff, and headed to the local office to file for unemployment benefits. I can honestly say that beyond the meager checks that kept me financially afloat (if just barely) I received no other benefit from my association with the state unemployment agency. As a professional woman with an advanced degree their job training offered me nothing, and I was both overqualified for and uninterested in the job listings the agency had available in unskilled labor.

It was from my local library and the incredibly supportive, resourceful, and knowledgable staff I found there that I received the kind of help I needed to find another job. The internet access, which I could not afford at home, kept me in touch with job sites and allowed me to quickly respond to postings that fit my skills and experience.

It is exactly these resources and services that we can least afford to lose right now. Please, take just a moment to send off three or four sentences in an email to your legislators, emploring them not to destroy our vital library system here in Ohio. Your neighbors will thank you for it. Your children will love you for it. And the next time you get shhh'd at the library, you can tell the librarians that they owe you one.

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