[Libs-Or] Reduction to FY 11 Funding for LSTA

[Jim Scheppke]

Dear Colleagues: We learned this week that the FFY 2011 budget that the Congress passed to prevent a shutdown and fund the Federal government through the end of the year makes a significant cut to our LSTA funding. We expect to get details next week from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Below is an article that appeared in yesterday’s LA Times about the reduction. The LSTA Advisory Council and the State Library Board have been conservative in their budgeting, so we don’t anticipate that this will cause any major problems in funding for competitive grants and statewide programs funded by LSTA. The LSTA Advisory Council will be discussing this at their meeting in May. We will let you know when we have more details.

Jim Scheppke, State Librarian
Oregon State Library
250 Winter St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-378-4367
(fax) 503-585-8059
jim.b.scheppke at state.or.us

[cid:3385721821_1396258]Go Green, Keep it on screen - think before you print.


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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/04/obama-congress-arts-funding.html


Federal cultural-grants agencies to lose 11.2% of their funding under
budget deal


April 14, 2011 |  6:45 am

The three federal agencies devoted to making arts and cultural grants
will take an 11.2% collective hit under the budget deal that institutes
the largest spending cut in U.S. history.

The National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the
Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services will be
faced with reining in their grantmaking between now and Sept. 30, when
the 2010-11 budget year ends. As for their spending in the coming fiscal
year, that will depend on a budgeting process that is expected to turn
into a titanic battle between Republicans who are calling for massive
cuts and no tax increases, and the Obama administration and its
Democratic allies in congress, who want a combination of cuts and higher
tax payments for high-income earners.

The NEA and NEH each will take a $12.5-million cut this year, from
$167.5 million to $155 million -- a 7.5% reduction. Spending at the IMLS
will decrease from $282.2 million to $237.9 million, a drop of 15.7%.

IMLS spokeswoman Mamie Bittner said Wednesday that the agency has been
"very cautious on spending" since October, when the current fiscal year
began, knowing that its allocation was not written in stone because
Congress had failed to pass a 2010-11 budget. Instead, the federal
government had operated under a "continuing resolution" that retained
the previous year's spending levels but was subject to change. The
resolution was about to expire when the deal calling for $38 billion in
spending cuts was reached, averting a possible government shutdown.

One of the questions to be decided now, Bittner said, is how to balance
quantity and heft -- should the IMLS help as many recipients as it did
before, allocating smaller average grants to each? Or should it keep
grants as large as before, but issue fewer to implement the $44.3
million in budget cuts?

NEA spokeswoman Victoria Hutter said her agency wouldn't comment until
the president signs the budget bill into effect.

The National Gallery of Art saw its $111-million allocation reduced by
$8 million, a 7.2% cut, and the State Department's spending for
"educational and cultural exchange programs" aimed at improving the
nation's foreign relations was reduced from $635 million to $600
million, a 5.5% cut.

The advocacy group Americans for the Arts issued a statement Tuesday
saying it was "heartened" that cuts to the NEA and NEH were "more
sensible and proportional" than the 26% reduction that House Republicans
passed earlier this year, but which the Democratic-controlled Senate did
not OK. Also, Americans for the Arts noted, an "Art in Education"
program that had been in danger of elimination has survived, albeit with
its budget reduced from $40 million to $25.5 million. While
acknowledging current constraints, the group said, "the nation would be
better with a more robust investment in nonprofit arts" than what's left
following the cuts.

Funding was not affected at the Smithsonian Institution, whose
$761-million allocation is by far the largest federal investment in the
arts and culture, or at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts, where this year's federal support for operations and renovations
totals $36.8 million.


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