If Lawrence arts supporters are unsuccessful in gaining continued city support for various arts efforts, it seems there will be no point in them looking to the state for assistance.

Recent news reports indicate that Kansas will lose about $800,000 in arts funding because state funding for the arts has dropped so low that major funding entities no longer are willing to provide matching funds.

In 2011, Gov. Sam Brownback defunded the Kansas Arts Commission, which had been the key agent for distributing state funds, as well as regional and federal matching money, to artists and arts groups across the state. In its place, he created the private Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission and charged that group with raising private money to replace the lost state revenue.

The KCAIC has never raised enough money to replace the state funding. Now, both the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts have said that Kansas isn’t eligible for grants from their organizations because the state’s investment in the arts doesn’t meet their minimum requirements.

According to the Wichita Eagle, the state allocated just $191,000 to the arts in this fiscal year. That’s $250,000 short of the minimum contribution required for NEA matching funds, costing the state about $400,000. Because meeting the NEA minimum is a requirement to receive funding from the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the state’s membership in that group also was suspended earlier this month. The alliance provided about $370,000 in programs and services throughout the state last fiscal year; that money will not be available this year.

Like other Brownback promises, the pledge to maintain support to arts groups around the state through private donations has not been fulfilled. A reasonable person would look at the situation and reconsider the decision that created it. Unfortunately, Brownback’s office has indicated it plans to stay the course even in the face of huge funding losses for arts in the state of Kansas.

The situation is unlikely to change, at least under this administration. And, like the victims of many other Brownback policies, the arts likely will take decades to recover if and when saner policies are put in place.