Arts Budget Cut Less Than Feared : Funding: State arts council gets $12.7 million and plans no layoffs or the elimination of programs.

The California Arts Council, which had been threatened with elimination during the state budget crisis, instead will take a cut of 15% and come away with a little more than $12.7 million in state funding for 1992-93.

“We’re pleased--it’s not as bad as it could have been,” said Angie Dickson, assistant to council executive director Joanne Kozberg.

In recent weeks, most arts council-funded activities had been put on hold as officials waited out the lengthy budget crisis, which ended early Wednesday. At more than one point in the debates, state lawmakers had threatened to eliminate the council entirely.

“We’ve been hopeful all along, because we’ve always been supported by the governor, but we never really knew how we’d come out,” Dickson said. “Throughout the whole process, we were told (there would be) anywhere from a 10% cut to elimination, so we’re really happy now that it’s over and with what we came out with.”

Dickson said the council’s staff on Wednesday was “still working with the numbers to see where (the cuts) will fall,” but noted they would be “across the board, and no program will be completely eliminated.” No staff layoffs are expected, she said.

Dickson noted that grants for multicultural arts organizations and artists’ residency programs will “fare the best,” “because those programs are mostly geared toward rural and underserved communities and so are really important to keep their funding up.” Also expected to fare well is the Performing Arts Touring Program.

Grants to the state’s large-budget arts organizations will take the biggest hit, Dickson said, partly because the Organizational Support Program they are funded through accounts for half of the council’s budget. Of the $880,000 being cut from that program, the largest amount will be taken from grants for organizations with budgets of more than $1 million.

Also expected to take a large cut is the smaller Artists Fellowships program, which last year gave out $255,000 in direct support to individual artists. Dickson said the CAC would “look to other funding sources and foundations” to make up for the cuts and act as partners in the fellowship awards.

In addition to the $12.7 million in state general funding, the CAC also expects to receive an additional $1 million in federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.