Arts cuts

To the editor:

Thanks to the Journal-World for Sunday’s editorial, “Arts value,” questioning the decision of Kansas Gov. Brownback to abolish the Kansas Arts Commission.

The editorial includes a number of important reasons why the abolition of the Arts Commission is a bad idea, including the loss of arts funding to rural areas that Gov. Brownback has pledged to support.

Gov. Brownback wants to show this as a purely economic decision, cutting the budget in tough times. The Journal-World shows how this is a poor decision indeed even as a matter of economics, as considerable matching grants from the federal government (estimated at $1.2 million) will likely be lost if the commission is abolished. There will also be considerable losses in the state’s nonprofit arts and cultural sector, “a $153.5 million industry that supports 4,000 full-time equivalent jobs.”

Thanks to the Journal-World for challenging the governor’s bad decision. A majority vote in either the Kansas House or Senate will cancel the governor’s executive order abolishing the Kansas Arts Commission, and as the Journal-World editorial strongly suggests, this is the right thing to do.