Museums and cultural organizations across the state are reeling after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed more than $32 million for cultural funding from the state’s budget, including about $1.2 million for organizations in Northwest Florida.
Demetrius Fuller leads both the Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation and Sinfonia Gulf Coast. Together, the two organizations saw more than $100,000 evaporate from their budgets with Wednesday's decision, which was buried in a much larger set of line item vetoes.
"It really was devastating when the news came out from the Florida Cultural Alliance yesterday," he said. "I had to re-read it. I said, 'This can't be possible.' In the 20-plus years that I've been working with the Department of Cultural Affairs in Florida, never has a governor vetoed this line item."
In total, 17 area organizations were affected — across Escambia, Walton and Okaloosa counties. While the amount of funding appropriated varies from year to year, most of the organizations with whom we spoke said it accounted for about 10% of their operating budget in an average year.
The Pensacola Children’s Chorus lost about $50,000. Executive Director Alex Gartner said his organization had come to depend on the state’s assistance to cover staff salaries and other operating costs that weren’t easily covered by other, restricted sources of funding.
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"The fiscal year turns over in just a couple weeks," he said, "and and our budgets start July 1. For many of us who already had that funding kind of sitting in a gray area, now that line item is zero. That requires some very quick shifting."
In response to the cuts, organizations will have to raise additional funds, cut programming or both.
"We're not really overspending on anything," said Chandra McKern, executive director for Pensacola Opera. "But If we have to trim something down, that will affect our artistic product. So where are we going to have to cut from? It's probably from our productions, which is awful."
Gartner and others pointed out that programs focused on the disadvantaged are often the first to get cut when belts are tightened.
"Forty percent of our singers receive some level of financial aid from us," Gartner said, "and by having a lot of our operational costs covered through the state and through some other avenues, we're able to live up to that commitment. It's scary — the possibility of us having to make some hard choices just to ensure that we can keep everything going as is."
The governor’s office declined to comment on the specific cuts to museums and cultural organizations. However, in a general statement on the budget, DeSantis positioned those cuts within the context of a larger push for fiscal responsibility.
I was proud to sign the “Focus on Florida’s Future Budget” for FY 2024-2025 today in Tampa.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) June 12, 2024
The budget includes major tax relief, record funding for education and infrastructure, and historic investments in conservation – and yet, thanks to nearly $1 billion in line-item… pic.twitter.com/KLMFu3A61L
Fuller took a dim view of this justification.
"Budgets are budgets," he said. "You have to make (hard) decisions sometimes, but some decisions just don't make sense. And with the amount of revenue that all of our combined cultural organizations bring to Florida, this is really a stupid decision."
Todd Allen agreed. He leads the Northwest Florida Ballet, one of the oldest arts organizations in the region.
"The US Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Endowment for the Arts data released early last month by Americans for the Arts indicated that the arts and culture sectors accounted for more than $45 billion of the state of Florida's GDP," he noted. "That's 3.15%. It also indicated that the arts and culture industry and our audiences drive $5.8 billion in economic activity and generated $1.2 billion in total tax revenue for the state ... So this is an economic driver."
Aside from the financial impact, leaders of several impacted organizations said they were dismayed, hurt even, by the larger message the governor’s decision sent.
"It hurts my feelings," said Diane Fraser, who leads the Emerald Coast Science Center. "Because it makes me feel like the work that we do isn't important."
The Pensacola Little Theatre was impacted by the cuts more than any other single organization — to the tune of nearly a half million dollars. Executive Director Sid Williams-Heath said he hoped the state’s retreat from culture would inspire people to take action.
"It comes down to one man who has the power of a veto pen," he said, "but we are still in a state where we need to voice ... that we can't stand for this and that the arts mean business. It is a part of the vibrancy (of our state). It is a part of the reason why people move here and stay here."