Reagan Budget Plan Gives Slight Increase to Arts

As he prepares to leave office, President Reagan is recommending his first--but slight--budget increase for the arts.

Instead of the current $169.1 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Administration on Monday proposed spending $170.1 million for fiscal 1990, beginning in October. The endowment, an independent federal agency, awards matching grants to arts organizations and artists and helps support state and local arts agencies.

Related agencies received similar increases from the White House, which proposed $153.3 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities, which currently receives $153 million, and $22.4 million for the Institute of Museum Services, slightly more than its $22.3-million budget. In his first six budgets, Reagan sought to eliminate the latter agency, which grants assistance to all types of institutions, from art museums to zoos, for operating expenses and conservation projects.

The additional $1 million in the arts endowment’s budget is specifically marked for arts education programs, a major priority of endowment Chairman Frank Hodsoll, a Reagan appointee.

“We are very pleased with this budget,” said Hodsoll, “since it allows the endowment to maintain its current level of support for the (arts) discipline programs and to increase the level of support for arts education . . . to $6.6 million.”

Arts leaders, meanwhile, maintained a sanguine attitude about the President’s last budget.

Anne Murphy, executive director of the American Arts Alliance, said that “it’s a very gentle way to end what’s always been a confrontation” between the nation’s arts community and the White House. But, she said, “We’re still far behind in terms of inflation and cost-of-living increases.”

If the arts had continued to be funded at a rate comparable to when President Carter left office, she said, the arts endowment would now be receiving $207.6 million.

This is Reagan’s ninth budget. When he came into office, he revised Carter’s fiscal 1982 budget, slashing his predecessor’s recommendation of $175 million for the arts endowment to $88 million. Congress eventually allocated $143.5 for fiscal 1982.

Although Reagan did not propose such severe cutbacks in subsequent years, it was not until last year that the Administration recommended the same level of spending as Congress had appropriated the previous year. Congress subsequently added $1.4 million.

Although President-elect George Bush is expected to submit his own budget, it is not likely that it will alter Reagan’s recommendations for the arts endowment or other relatively minor agencies. Congress will then have its say.

There was no immediate comment on Reagan’s last arts budget from Rep. Sidney R. Yates (D-Ill.), chairman of the House appropriations interior subcommittee, which handles the arts budget.

Lois Burke Shepard, the Reagan-appointed director of the Institute of Museum Services, said that the Administration’s 1990 proposal “represents . . . recognition not only of the agency’s efforts but of the importance of our nation’s museums and the effects their cultural and educational missions have upon American life.”

Edward Able, director of the American Assn. of Museums, said: “We don’t feel (the 1990 budget) provided for advancing initiatives, but it does at least--and we have to be realistic about it--maintain the level of funding in light of the current deficits.”

And Tom Birch, legislative counsel for the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, commenting on the arts budget, said: “It’s a softening of an attitude. Finally, maybe, there’s a realization that the federal government has an active role to play in supporting the arts in this country.”