Cutting arts funding a bad investment

Miami Herald by Lorenzo Lebrija | Sep. 6, 2009 (Opinion)

Tough work began this week. When Miami-Dade County commissioners met for the first budget hearing Thursday, they needed to find a way to bridge a budget gap of more than $400 million. It won't be easy, and every expense should be evaluated.

Among the cuts proposed by Mayor Carlos Alvarez in his budget is a slashing of $11 million to the arts in Miami-Dade. The argument being that when compared with basic social services, the arts just don't ... Full Story »

Posted by Dale Penn

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Subjects: Living, Entertainment
Topics: Arts, Music
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Posted by: Posted by Dale Penn - Sep 6, 2009 - 8:22 AM PDT
Reviewed by: Dale Penn (review)
Content Type: Article
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Edited by: Dale Penn - Sep 6, 2009 - 8:22 AM PDT

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Dale Penn
3.3
 by Dale Penn - Sep. 6, 2009

The author makes a generally logical and succinct argument in favor of maintaining arts funding in Miami-Dade County in this opinion piece. He has a clear bias, and discloses it transparently (I share his bias, by the way). The argument that funding for the arts is an investment rather than an expense is compelling to me, however this is a very Clinton-esque argument and isn't likely to sway conservative commissioner votes needed to fund the arts. The County government, service organizations and other nonprofit organizations are facing funding cuts as well, and I'm sure their advocates would make a case that their causes are either investments. Others would argue that we don't have the luxury of "investing" at a time ... More »

The arts portion of the Miami-Dade County budget represents a mere 2.75% of the entire budget. The proposal by the Mayor to cut this portion of the budget in its entirety shows substantial ignorance on his part and this should haunt him come election time. To the extent this opinion piece educates him and the public to this, it is of great value.

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