The city council will be considering whether or not to approve giving ArtsPartners a 2.5% share of the restaurant portion of Peoria’s HRA tax for four more years. Here’s a little background from the council communication:
In 2000, the City and Civic Center amended their Intergovernmental Agreement to provide that ArtsPartners of Central Illinois receive 2.5% of the collected Restaurant Tax revenue collected commencing with the September 2000 Restaurant Tax receipts and continuing through August 2002. In August 2002, that Agreement was extended through August of 2004, and again from 2004 to 2006. In 2006, the City approved an Amendment through August 2007. The Civic Center Authority Board unanimously voted on August 23,2007 to continue funding and approve a four (4) year Intergovernmental Agreement with ArtsPartners capped at $75,000 per year and continuing to receive the 2.5% of Restaurant Tax through August 31, 2011.
A recent Chronicle commentator argues that ArtsPartners duplicates the efforts of other organizations. Since arts groups do their own local advertising/promotion, and since the publicly-funded Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau promotes the Peoria area (which would presumably include promotion of the arts offerings) to tourists and those relocating, why do we need yet another publicly-funded agency to focus on the arts?
I think the commentator has a point. Furthermore, while the arts are important, so are other things. What about sports? Should we start a publicly-funded “SportsPartners” organization to market and promote all the sporting events in Peoria? Schools are important — how about a publicly-funded “SchoolPartners” to promote all the great public and private schools we have in Peoria?
Here’s a better idea: If the Civic Center doesn’t need all that HRA money, how about reducing the tax instead of trying to find other ways to spend it? Lower taxes have wide appeal — I’ll bet they would help tourism and relocation at least as much as ArtsPartners.
Lower Taxes! Now there’s a novel idea.
Truth is, the city has no business funding organizations like the “ArtsPartners” in the first place.
While we’re at it, how about sunsetting subsidies to the Civic Center?
This is all a grand take on a drop-in-the-bucket funding item. Knock off that 75k, and you’re gonna save me about a penny a year. Likely less.
Wow… I feel so rich already.
Well, you know how it is… $75,000 here, $75,000 there, pretty soon you’re talking real money. Don’t worry — I’m sure the council will approve it.
Funny, very funny. I agree with your post and I have been saying that all along. Arbor here arbor there and yet I am told that this is only a drop in the bucket or these funds have been made available by a grant or something. Please, with all your research you do, name one tax this city has rescinded or removed. The garbage fee is still with us even after the Mayor and some council people promised during their campaigns they would rid us of this. Fat chance the HRA will ever be reduced or go away. You see, a politician is a politician be it council member or whatever and spending someone else’s money is the easiest thing to do. Do Peorians have to throw tea into the river (or Crown Royal) to get our point of over taxation across?
For a more indepth and thoughtful view of the arts and ArtsPartners in Peoria, see today’s column by Journal Star arts critic Gary Panetta at http://www.pjstar.com/stories/090907/GAR_BE8AEEJV.026.php.
Elaine: I’m having to assume you feel it’s more indepth and thoughtful only because you agree with the tone and conclusion because I see no greater amount of detail or thought in that article. Yes Arts plays a role in building a community and yes the Council should know what it is getting for the funds. If it’s going to pay salaries what does that accomplish? If it’s going to promote a variety of arts programs then what are they and what have they added to the communities enrichment? I don’t think it all comes down to dollars and cents but EVERY program should be able to articulate the benefit it provides whether that is in qualitative or quantitative terms.
What Elaine means by “more indepth [sic] and thoughtful” is that she agrees with Panetta and not me. She’s welcome to her opinion — and she’s welcome to leave her opinion here on my blog even though she doesn’t allow others to do the same on hers — but that doesn’t make her or Panetta’s view any more in depth or thoughtful. It is just the other side of the argument. In fact, Panetta tacitly agrees with me and other commentators that ArtsPartners is duplicating the efforts of the PACVB — he suggests merging the two groups.
Thanks for the modified Everett Dirksen quote, C.J.
Okay, you who think Arts Partners should be zero funded because there are other things that are more important to spend the money on, here are a list of things the city should also cut because clearly, adding one or two more firefighters or police officers or fixing more curbs and sidewalks is much more important:
1) Subsidies for the IHSA tournament
2) The Heart of Peoria Commission
3) PACE
4) TV/radio Broadcasts of the city council meetings
5) Municipal Band
6) Support for the PACVB
7) Support for the EDC
8) GIS
9) Riverfront Events
10) The Museum
If Arts Partners is pork and unnecessary, than the list of ten things above are too, and in most cases moreso. Where is the outcry against those?
I’m not sure why 8 followed by a ) automatically gives a smiley. I didn’t mean to put that in.
Those other things should all come under scrutiny, too, and each should stand or fall on its own merits. But they’re not on the agenda Tuesday.
Incidentally, my post did not make the argument that you ascribe to it (“because there are other things that are more important to spend the money on”). Rather, I said that promotion of the city’s offerings — including the arts — is the responsibility of the PACVB which is already getting funding from the city, and thus ArtsPartners is duplicative.
As a sub-point, I also said that I don’t think HRA taxes should be diverted to other things. HRA taxes should go toward the Civic Center and when the Civic Center no longer needs that money, the taxes should be repealed. That’s what Peoria was promised when the HRA taxes were instituted.
For those who think like Elaine….OK, nobody else really thinks like her, thank God, so let’s say for those who are tempted to be swayed by her, let me clarify one point. I (and I would venture to say, CJ, and others who are “fiscal conservatives”), don’t deny the importance of the arts (or those other things “Let’s Be Fair” mentions). They are all important, nice, desirable, etc., etc. BUT, it is NOT local taxpayers’ responsibility to fund everythig that is important, nice, desirable, etc. It’s just not. There are other sources of funding, and, frankly, we cannot afford everything that is important or nice or desirable.
Mouse, if you’re gonna start picking and choosing what is and what isn’t the responsibility of taxpayers to pay for, we might be here for the next, say, millenium or so trying to figure out what’s good and what isn’t. It’s too subjective to get into, don’t you see?
Maybe I don’t think I should pay for roads leading the population further north… but, believe me, it’s going to be part of my taxes… even if I don’t think it’s good for the city to keep moving further and further away from its center.
Maybe I think that popping $75,000.00 to the Arts thingamajig is a GOOD thing, even though you might not. Maybe putting that $75,000.00 out there will help pay for some advertising that will bring some people in to see the artsy-fartsy stuff… and then they’ll hit a restaurant… and go back to Streator and tell their friends about how good the restaurant is… then, when the four of ’em come back, they shoot over to Northwoods to buy some stuff, and… and…
You get it, right? Maybe it IS the responsibility of the taxpayer to help PAY for stuff that makes Peoria a bit more tolerable of a place to live in… and also brings some outsiders in to spend money. I don’t think it’s as easy as Basic Services ONLY crapola… there’s more to life than sidewalks and potholes (thank God).
O.K. C.J., Mr. Arts Partners duplicates what the PACVB is doing…. how about turning your memory back a few weeks ago when you advocated keeping your beloved Heart of Peoria Commission intact. Talk about duplication?!?!?! Any dime spent on staff time or even a photocopy for that Commission is a total duplication of what could be/should be happening in other commissions. But you advocated keeping the HOP together instead of disbanding its membership to other commissions.
Eliminating Arts Partners because it does what PACVB should be doing seems incongruent with your position that the HOPC should continue to exist when it does what Planning and Zoning, Economic Development, and other cities departments should be doing.
HOPC is a temporary commission. It won’t last forever. It’s already been scaled back. We’ve been working with city staff to get regulations (e.g., Land Development Code) in place that will allow the Heart of Peoria Plan to become part of our city’s DNA, as it were. The goal is to work ourselves out of a job. We’re already starting to transition by infusing HOPC members on other city commissions. I didn’t advocate for a permanent HOPC, but rather for it to stay around a little longer because I didn’t feel that we were done with our work yet (for instance, the LDC is still being revised, and if you look at our work plan you can see the additional transportation issues that need to be addressed). Also, the people who are on the commission are all volunteers — i.e., we work for free.
In contrast, ArtsPartners wants to be permanently on the public dole, and they have a full-time salaried executive director and office space. The salary and office expenses no doubt account for at least half the funding they receive from the city — probably more.
I don’t think the two are analogous at all.
Let’s Be Fair makes an interesting point. Why should tax money be used to subsidize anything on his/her list, and not Arts Partners? Let’s Be Fair asks, “where is the outcry against those?” Every entity on LBF’s list has come under close scrutiny, at least by those who frequent C.J.’s site. The museum may even top the list. Arts Partners and the role it plays in this community must be reconsidered.
New Voice, Let’s Be Fair and others…
I could honestly care less about what happens to Arts Partners, but you’re missing the entire point. CJ isn’t against the promotion of the arts in Peoria, in so much as he’s commented here, the point is there are other organizations already doing it. So the real argument is not whether the promotion of the arts should be publicaly funded, but whether or not it is already being done by another organization.
Mouse is a practical, logical thinker when trying to save the older parts of Peoria. No “artsy-fartsy” doodads will bring suburbanites into Peoria to eat and spend money if they do not feel safe. Difficult parking will not encourage people to visit downtown Peoria.
JFD… people are ALREADY coming to downtown for all sorts of things. The only thing keeping them from coming more often is that there aren’t enough things to come down for! Have you ever been to downtown Peoria? Ever had difficulty in finding a parking spot? Yeah, if you don’t want to walk a block, you might be in trouble, but there are plenty of parking decks around here.
Sheeeeeeeeeesh.