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ARTS ADVOCACY HANDBOOK

UPDATE : STATE NEWS

THE GOVERNOR’S BUDGET

The General Assembly is now in session and the budget process starts with Governor Mark Sanford’s Executive Budget proposals, which were submitted on January 8th, following a series of budget hearings. The Governor, following the advise of his “Results Team”, believes in a “Budgeting for Results Process”, which instead of “funding agencies”, “purchases” activities and outcomes.

His $6.8 billion budget for 2008-2009, proposes spending about $300 million more than he recommended a year ago. To pay for most of his proposals, Governor Sanford wants to redirect $183 million from current spending. About $18 million in proposed savings would come from restructuring some state agencies. Legislators have the challenge of closing a roughly $300 million revenue gap for 2008-2009. A projected multi-year economic national “slowdown” and shrinking state revenues mean less funding available to maintain and grow our state services.

Besides the state budget, some legislative issues for the 2008 session are expected to include immigration reform, education funding, cigarette taxes, payday lending, and drunken driving laws.

All 170 General Assembly seats are up for election this year. This fact alone will have quite an impact on what legislation is passed and how dollars are spent during this session.

REGARDING THE STATE ARTS COMMISSION

Each year, Governor Sanford has proposed significant cuts to the South Carolina Arts Commission’s budget. This year is no different. He proposed a cut of 23.3% and it includes eliminating funding for what his budget categorizes as “artist development funding”, and critical cuts to the category of “community arts development”. As with many state agencies, other cuts have been proposed in the area of administration.

As in the past, the Governor also suggests creating a Department of Literary and Cultural Resources (DLCR) to include the State Library, State Museum, the Arts Commission and the Department of Archives and History. The DLCR and a DCLR Board would be responsible for appointing the director of the agency. The DLCR Board would have equal representation from each of the four arts and cultural agencies. He estimates his proposed restructuring savings of the Division of Arts (currently the Arts Commission) would be $117,087. He also proposed combining the Arts Commission and the State Museum into one facility, with a projected savings of $1,500,000 “in recurring general funds through a reduction in space requirements, and elimination of systems duplication and equipment”.

THE STATE BUDGET PROCESS

Following the introduction of the Governor’s Executive Budget, the S.C. House begins working on its version of the state budget. The process begins with agency budget presentation to members of the various House Ways and Means (HWM) subcommittees. The recommendations of those subcommittees move to the full HWM Committee – the budget writing committee. The HWM Committee will make its funding recommendations and the budget then moves to the House floor for a vote by all House members.

After the House’s version has passed, it moves to the Senate, where the budget process is much the same as the House. Subcommittees of the Senate Finance Committee will listen to budget presentations by the various state agencies. They will decide on a funding level for each, and their recommendations will be sent to the full Senate Finance Committee. The Senate Finance Committee’s version of the budget will then move to the Senate floor for a vote.

Since it is highly unlikely that the House and Senate versions of the budget would be in agreement, a Conference Committee is formed to broker the differences. The Conference Committee is made up of 3 House members and three Senators, usually including the chairs of both the HWM and the Senate Finance Committee. The full House and Senate vote on the outcome, and then the budget moves to the Governor’s office for his signature. The Governor will accept the budget or not, but more than likely, he will use his line item veto power. These vetoes return to the House and Senate for a vote to accept (sustain) the vetoes or to “override” them (rejecting the Governor’s veto). The goal is to conclude the budget process by the end of the session. However, as in year’s past, the General Assembly has been called back to Columbia to finish its budget work, well in to the month of June.

Advocates can stay abreast of the budget process as it impacts funding for the arts and arts education through advocacy alerts and updates emailed by the South Carolina Arts Alliance. Arts supporters are encouraged to stay actively involved and participate in the process.

REGARDING ARTS EDUCATION ISSUES

The good news is that there were no cuts to the Arts Curricula Grants or Gifted & Talented funding within the Governor’s Executive Budget.

However, the Governor wants to restructure education funding by extending the scope of the Funding Flexibility Proviso into a permanent statute. This statute would provide school districts more flexibility in how they spend the dollars allocated to them. That legislation is called the Streamlined Management & Accounting Resources for Teaching or S.M.A.R.T. Funding. This legislation passed overwhelmingly in the House in 2003, and came very close to passing in the Senate.

At that time, arts advocates worked to get language in the Senate version that protected all grants, including the Arts Curricula Grants. The S.M.A.R.T. Funding bill did not see any real action in 2006 or 2007, but the Governor says he will work closely with the General Assembly to enact this bill in 2008.

Therefore, the Arts Curricula Grant funds could very much be at risk during this legislative session. The Arts Alliance will stay on top of this issue.

The Arts Alliance and the Arts Commission will continue to monitor the work of the Senate and House Education Funding Study Committees. They are examining the various education funding mechanisms such as the Education Funding Act (EFA), the Education Improvement Act (EIA), the relationship of taxation on education funding and what constitutes the Base Student Cost. This process is expected to continue through the session and into the next.

The implementation of the S.C. Education & Economic Development Act and the Student Health and Fitness Act of 2005 continues to have an impact on classroom instructional time in the arts. Information to determine the state of the arts in South Carolina classrooms will be gathered via an on-line survey. School District Fine Arts Coordinators and arts classroom teachers will participate in the survey in order to document the current changes and future challenges. The School District Fine Arts Coordinators are also creating a document that will define the elements of a quality arts education program.

Last year, our sister organization, the S.C. Alliance for Arts Education hosted, along with representatives from the State Department of Education, the S.C. Arts Commission, and the Arts Alliance, and others, an Arts Education Summit. Arts leaders worked strategically to align the arts within the goals and recommendations of the State Superintendent of Education -- Dr. Jim Rex.

Dr. Rex, a former teacher, coach and college president, become the only Democrat elected to statewide office during the last election. He has served as a member of the Arts n Basic Curriculum Steering Committee.

Dr. Rex states that his administration will focus on achieving five key goals:

Accelerating innovation
Increasing choices within public schools
Refining the state’s accountability system to ensure maximum results and minimum testing
Elevating and reinvigorating the teaching profession
Providing fair and more equitable school funding

Additional legislation and issues that are of interest to arts education supporters are the inclusion of “learning in and through the arts” within the Charter School, Virtual School, School Choice/Open Enrollment bills, and the 4-K Child Development Pilot Program initiative. Arts-friendly language is included in some current versions of the Choice and 4-K bills.

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