If you make the Arts Commission private, in order to survive and continue helping promote the arts in this state, it will have to compete for funding (from private or public sources) with the very entities that they have (in the past) been able to help.

If the Governor and Law makers want to cut out some costs, why don't they stop spending tax dollars to write up, have published, distribute, and debate "do nothing" measures like the ones listed below (to name just a few) that cost an estimated minimum $5000 per bill? With the money they spend on bills like this (designed to please a few constituents or pay off a campaign contributor) they would be able to actually help Kansas stop its slide into being last in all more categories that normally mark a civilized society. But they want everyone ELSE to tighten their belts....

Senate Resolution 1807 – Resolution urging the country of Turkey to uphold and safeguard religious and human rights without compromise.

HR 6008 – Resolution opposing the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory trainwreck. See also HR 5009 – does the exact same thing.

HB 2099 – Creating the Kansas goat council (note: representative who introduced this says it was done as a favor for a constituent http://cjonline.com/blog-post/tim-carpenter/2011-02-09/goat-council-bill-gored-house).

SCR 1601- A Concurrent Resolution rescinding the 1978 legislature’s petition to US Congress calling for a amendments to the US Constitution

SR 1804 – Congratulating and commending Tad Felts for being inducted into the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

SR 1805 – Congratulating and commending the members of the 2011 Kansas Teacher of the Year Team

SR 1806 - Recognizing January 21, 2011 as Dentist Appreciation Day

SR 1808 – Congratulating and commending Senator Janis Lee

HB 2132 – Providing for issuance of personalized “gold star family plates” for vehicles

HB 2129 – The health care freedom act, giving citizens the right to purchase health insurance or to refuse to purchase it.

HB 2146 – Naming the peridot as the official state gemstone.

HB 2063- Designating a state fossil

I know. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Go to www.kslegislature.org and start reading the bills being proposed this year. Or the duplication - for example SB 66 & HB 2128 – Each prohibits any candidate from office from appearing in a public service announcement or advertisement within 60 days of an election. $1000 fine. See also same provision, in HB 2128 – only the fine is for $2000. Two bills – one from Senate and one from House – with exactly the same proposal - just a different $ amount for the fine.

By my personal count, the amount of tax $ that is being wasted (so far) this year on such "do nothing" bills is up to $230,000, and going up each day they are allowed to introduce more bills. And that doesn't count the $ that is (or will be) spent to re-do (staff time to write/amend, publishing costs, and distribution of all the hundreds of copies) of a bill anytime an amendment is made to it. In this day and age of electronic documents, it really is amazing that the Legislators still are publishing even their own internal rules (like who is appointed to what committees each year) in bill form - requiring that $5000 each time. Not that you'll ever get any one of them to admit to that cost. Or suggest a way to cut back/down/out the "do-nothing" efforts (especially in a fiscally tight time, like now).

"Brownback has said the private sector will step up to the plate. He has appointed a non-profit arts foundation to raise funds. "There will be more money for arts, rather than less," he said."

Is this political rhetoric? Where is the hard evidence?

How does he know this?

How would the money be distributed?

Shannon Riley of the Topeka Civic Theater said, "If only the private sector supports the arts, only the private sector will have access to the arts."

This statement makes no sense. Who are these individuals who have never encountered anything with style or design? Naked mole rats? I'm pretty sure they don't know about the public sector, much less the private sector.

I have unfettered access to all kinds of art. Architecture, landscapes, everything that furnishes my home and my family/friends' home, store window displays, random music. And that's just the strictly free or incidental art. It's also pretty cheap to view art online or in books or movies. Homeless people might not be able to afford those, but they can look at the design of lots of things for free. Although I doubt they care about it. Art appreciation is a luxury.

Shannon Riley of the Topeka Civic Theater said, "If only the private sector supports the arts, only the private sector will have access to the arts."

I think many welfare art supporters believe strongly like gun rights folks.

Only way you going to take my art away is when you pry the Monet copy from my cold dead hand.

Like all nations trying creeping socialism, citizens begin to confuse rights with privileges. Aint that right Sven from Sweden?

Meanwhile, the Governor included $5 million in his budget to subsidize the airport in Wichita.

Independent studies show for every dollar invested in the arts, there is $20 in economic development.

Meanwhile, an independent study from this week show that for every dollar given to the Wichita airport, there is $2.32 in economic development. http://cjonline.com/legislature/2011-02-09/audit-wichita-air-subsidy-questioned

So explain again why to cut funding for the Arts but continue handing $5 million a year to the Wichita Airport? Is $5 million to the Wichita airport a core function of government?

Hypocrisy. Conservative Republicans are desperate to eliminate a program that pays for itself 20 times over while continue to fund a program that produces 1/10th of the benefit.

Arts and Economic Prosperity

Nationally, the nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity every year—$63.1 billion in spending by organizations and an additional $103.1 billion in event-related spending by their audiences. The study is the most comprehensive study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry ever conducted. It documents the economic impact of the nonprofit arts and culture industry in 156 communities and regions (116 cities and counties, 35 multicounty regions, and five states), and represents all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The $166.2 billion in total economic activity has a significant national impact, generating the following:

*  $5.7 million full-time equivalent jobs
*  $104.2 billion in household income
*  $7.9 billion in local government tax revenues
*  $9.1 billion in state government tax revenues
*  $12.6 billion in federal income tax revenues

1. Economic Impact : http://www.americansforthearts.org/information_services/research/services/economic_impact/default.asp

2. Information and Services: http://www.americansforthearts.org/information_services/

3. http://www.AmericansForTheArts.org