A cautionary tale for the “Beware Politicians Bearing Gifts” file. (A pretty thin file given the relationship between politics and the arts.)

Four years ago, I posted about how the State of New Jersey was trying to ignore a law that guaranteed funding to the arts from hotel tax revenue. This was a particularly unwise move given that cutting funding to the arts meant the tax would go away entirely thanks to a poison pill provision.

In other words, for want of cutting a couple million from arts funding, the state would lose many more millions when the hotel tax disappeared due to making the cut.

The government received a lot of criticism for contemplating the move, including from a former governor.

Now there is a new administration and a new attitude. When the tax was created, it was contemplated that the funding for the arts would increase as tax revenue increased. The problem is where the previous administration had viewed the $28 million minimum funding limit as the floor they wanted to demolish, the current administration sees it as the ceiling they are happy to bolster.

Instead of providing more funding as more revenue comes in to the dedicated tax, the state is raking the excess revenue into the general coffers.

“…the tax generated more than $1.1 billion for state and local governments since it was introduced 10 years ago, but only $184 million has gone to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the largest of the four agencies that should have received a far bigger chunk of the money.

[…]

It’s a cautionary tale for supporters of a separate bill that would take a slice of the sales tax to fund the state’s open space and historic preservation programs, which have run out of money. It might look great on paper, but without the political will behind it, the promises are hollow.”

This story makes me wonder about the fate of the funds collected as a result of the tax increase that was passed in Minnesota to provide support to wildlife areas and the arts.

I know the Minnesota legislature has been asking if the Minneapolis Orchestra has betrayed the public trust by accepting funding but not providing concerts. My hope is that it is motivated by an appreciation of the arts and a desire to see them produced rather than a desire to scrap the funding.

Can anyone from Minnesota give me a sense of how things have worked out?