Americans for the Arts, the nation'€™s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts, and the National Conference of State Legislatures today announced Kansas State Senator Roger Reitz as the recipient of the 2011 Public Leadership in the Arts Award for State Arts Leadership, which honors a public official who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the advancement of the arts at the state level. Senator Reitz will receive his award today at the today at the National Conference of State Legislatures Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX.

During his tenure in office, Senator Reitz has actively supported arts and arts education programs in Kansas. Upon learning Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's proposal to effectively eliminate the Kansas Arts Commission, he initiated Kansas Senate Resolution 1819, which rejected the Governor's Executive Reorganization Order transferring the Kansas Arts Commission to another department. Further, he personally spoke with every Kansas Senator to maximize votes in favor of Resolution 1819. During the Federal and State Affairs Committee hearing in the Senate, he testified before this committee - €”on which he also served - €”and he spoke again on the Senate floor prior to the vote.

As a result of his efforts, Senator Reitz's resolution to retain the Kansas Arts Commission passed the Kansas Senate in a bipartisan manner on March 16, 2011. He then went on to work with the Senate Appropriations Committee to appropriate $689,000 for the Arts Commission, which the Kansas House agreed to and included in the final budget for the Governor's signature. Despite Senator Reitz'€™s remarkable work on behalf of the Kansas Arts Commission, a line item veto was issued eliminating the Arts Commission’s budget making Kansas the only state without a functioning state arts agency.