Plan to boost arts funding withers with artistic license

Vying for scraps of state revenue, the arts fought the environment in Sacramento and the environment won.

A bill written by state Sen. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) had aimed to boost the cash-starved California Arts Council, the agency that makes state government grants to the arts, by an estimated $1.5 million a year. The idea: Give the arts council all the income from vanity license plates emblazoned with a special design that arts-loving motorists can purchase for an extra fee. The point of contention: Giving all the money to the arts would mean siphoning the same amount from environmental agencies, which under current law get a cut from all vanity plates, totaling about $30 million a year.

Speier’s bill passed the Senate by a 36-1 vote, but it came a cropper in the Assembly, where it encountered opposition from the California Assn. of Professional Scientists and failed last week by a 4-1 vote in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

“Both programs deserve more money,” said Hans Hemann, chief of staff to Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), who chairs the natural resources committee and voted against the pro-arts proposal. “It put members in a very difficult situation, because it pits two constituency groups Loni is very supportive of.” Hancock was concerned that other causes that benefit from special license plates -- among them children’s safety programs, firefighters’ memorials and college scholarships -- would go the same route if the arts bill passed. “They’re all deserving, but we really will see environmental programs taking another hit,” Hemann said.

The committee vote gave Speier the option of trying again, but her spokeswoman, Tracy Fairchild, said the bill is dead. “It’s very clear the committee intended to kill it; it’s pretty much moribund. So we lost.”

The Assembly defeat leaves the arts council with a budget of $3.3 million for 2005-06, virtually unchanged from the last two years. For the third consecutive year, California, which has an overall state budget of $117.3 billion, will rank last in the nation in per capita state government spending on the arts, according to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.