GARDEN GROVE : Funds OKd to Cut Symphony’s Deficit

The city’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year was unveiled at this week’s City Council meeting, and the document reopened a controversy over city funding of the arts.

This time it wasn’t the Grove Shakespeare Festival, the subject of political controversy in 1988 and 1989, but the Garden Grove Symphony.

In previous years, the council battled over subsidizing the festival and symphony, and finally decided to phase out city support over three years for both of them.

In paring down funding requests from various community organizations Monday night, the council first rejected--then partially restored--a $12,000 funding request to help reduce the symphony’s deficit for its past season that ended June 2. The city has granted the symphony up to $23,000 for its current season. In its last year of city funding, the Shakespeare Festival was granted $23,556.

“This would be our last year for it,” symphony board member Mark Leyes said of the funding request.

The council rejected the request for $12,000 by a 3-2 vote. But after some other budget requests were rejected and the council contingency fund showed a $12,560 balance, Councilman J. Tilman Williams changed camps and suggested that $7,000 of the original request be restored. That proposal passed on a 3-2 vote.

During the budget deliberations, the council considered an $85-million spending plan that increased 4.5% from last year’s plan. The budget calls for increases in developer fees and parking ticket charges, which will increase from $19 to $21.