Dear CA Arts & Culture Advocates,

Welcome back, it’s budget season again in California but things look a little different this year. Between spiraling inflation, a weakening stock market and a budget that relies heavily on capital gains, this year’s budget proposal announced by Governor Newsom on January 10, 2023 is a $298 billion spending plan which takes into account a projected $22.5 billion deficit and is about 3.6% smaller than last year’s record budget. 

 What does this mean for the arts?

 Over the last several years, due to your advocacy, we’ve seen record historic investments to the industry such as Live Venues and Nonprofit Performing Arts Grants Programs, new programs such as CA Creative Corps and funding for legislative mandates such as Cultural Districts and Museum Grants. Many of the appropriations were one-time allotments — commitments that if not yet spent are now at the greatest risk as the state negotiates over how to balance its books. In addition, we have seen historic legislation pass including, SB 628 (Allen) CA Creative Workforce Act and SB 1116 (Portantino) The Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund, but both programs remain unfunded, a problem we hope to solve as we move our advocacy forward.

However, for now, we must also protect funding that we had hoped would be in the arts for the next several years. Specifically the Governor has proposed that the following would revert back to the general fund budget by June 20, 2023.

• A reduction of $20 million of the $30 million appropriated for the Cultural Districts program.
• A reduction of $29 million of the $50 million for the Museum Grant Program.
• A reduction of approximately $1.2 billion Proposition 98 General Fund from the Arts, Music, and Instructional Materials Discretionary Block Grant included in the 2022 Budget Act.

The Governor’s budget  does include some new spending proposals:

• $100 million one-time Proposition 98 General Fund—or roughly $200 per 12th grade student enrolled in California public schools—to enable local educational agencies to provide high school seniors with access to cultural enrichment experiences across the state by facilitating museum visits, access to theatrical performances, or other participation in extracurricular art enrichment activities.
• Film and Television Tax Credit—$330 million per year beginning in 2025-26 to extend the existing program and make the credit refundable to benefit a wider range of productions and ensure the competitive program will maximize economic benefits to the state.

As many of you have heard before, advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint. This is just the beginning of the budget process. We must continue to make the case for arts and culture as smART investments for local economic development, cultural equity and community wellness. We’ve been here before, worse actually, and we’ve persevered. In fact since 2003, we have seen a 2500% increase in baseline funding for the California Arts Council, historic creative workforce legislation, an arts education ballot measure pass, record investments in one-time programs and relief funding, and increased public awareness that arts and culture are a leading industry and solution partners to California. 

 We can’t and we won’t stop now but our voice is only as strong as who shows up with us! Twenty-eight percent of the Legislature is new this year representing the most diverse California Legislature ever. We must share with them and returning members why you matter to their district and why arts and culture deserve public resources for our industry and impacts to sustain and thrive. 

 Here are three things you can do to engage:

1. Send a welcome letter to your state legislators using our prefilled template.
2. Save the date for Arts Advocacy Day in Sacramento on April 18, 2023.
3. Share this page with five friends and impress upon them the importance of engaging in arts advocacy.