Legislative News
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The U.S. Department of Education announced a new round of grants for the newly-named “Assistance for Arts Education Development & Dissemination” grant program. In total, about $14 million will be awarded to 20-25 grantees, each receiving about $575,000 per year during their 4 year project cycle.
At a special Capitol Hill reception on April 18 to honor and remember former Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), hosted by Americans for the Arts in conjunction with the Congressional Arts Caucus, U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) as the next co-chair of the Arts Caucus.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s proposal stands in stark contrast to his proposed spending plan last year, in which he proposed to cut city arts funding by $4.7 million—a 31 percent decrease—that drew protests from San Diego’s arts and cultural community.
The voter-approved tax for the arts is modeled after a similar one that creates a fund for open space and historic landmark projects; voters in over 200 New Jersey municipalities have approved open space taxes.
The state’s final approved budget includes a record funding level of $22.7 million for the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC). In his FY 2019 budget proposal, Governor Larry Hogan recommended an increase of $21.7 million for the arts.
Called "Tennessee: State of the Arts," the program is an unprecedented public-private partnership to provide school districts statewide the opportunity to apply for funding to improve or develop their music education programs for the 2018-19 school year.
For the fifth consecutive year, a new record number of U.S. Representatives has signed the annual “Dear Colleague” letter, led by the bipartisan Congressional Arts Caucus co-chairs.
Before a crowd of 650 arts advocates from every state, including a delegation of 30 from his home state of New Jersey, Americans for the Arts and The United States Conference of Mayors recognized and thanked U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) for his congressional arts leadership during the 31st Arts Advocacy Day.
The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has released their bill to fund the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The bill proposes level-funding ($150 million) for both the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
The latest congressional plan for advancing tax reform continues calls for preserving the charitable tax deduction, a key provision and an important inclusion. The framework, however, also proposes to double the standard deduction, which would have the impact of moving taxpayers away from itemizing their deductions (like charitable giving). Americans for the Arts has joined a large and diverse coalition of non-profits in support of a universal charitable tax deduction that could be made available to all taxpayers.
