Florida cancels all arts grants
NewsGovernor Ron DeSantis, whose recent run for Republican Party presidential nomination crashed and burned at vast expense, has peremptorily abolished $32 million of funding for arts groups that had been bilaterally approved by the state legislature.
He gave no reason.
Casualties include Sarasota Opera and the Orlando Phoilharmonic.
De Santis has clearly calculated that there are no votes in the arts – in Florida, at least.
No surprise. I’m sure if pressed, DeSantis would state it’s what God told him to do.
Perhaps it would be best to learn the reason why, then comments would be more appropriate.
The reason why is so he has funding to build a $75 million gym in his good buddies far right Christian school. And making sure there’s plenty of $$$ to put the 10 commandments in public schools. He’s a pathetic little man
Desantis gave no reason. Florida 24/25 budget $116.5 billion. 23/24 surplus $14.6 billion. $32 million in this context is both mean and meaningless. Desantis acts out of spite is the best explanation.
You obviously have no idea who or what this man is.
Well, the very liberal governor of Massachusetts recently cut all arts grants in half unilaterally.
It didn’t make headlines because she’s not a Republican. These grants had also been approved by the legislature. So this may or may not have anything to do with political leanings and more to do with financial realities, but it makes a good headline.
Florida has a budget surplus and Massachusetts has a billion dollar shortfall-so don’t compare the actions of the two states.
Wrong, actually.
Because the previous Governor, Baker, a Republican, cut spending to the IRS. So now tax collecting for people who owe millions, has fallen way behind. These tax dollars keep the State going. Without them, cuts need to be made
The US has the woke Liberal Arts Program going on, and still expects the conservatives to keep paying the bills?
The only culture in Florida is agriculture.
You’re clearly not aware that The Sarasota Ballet was recently invited to perform at the Royal Opera House in London as a key component of the Fredrick Ashton Festival there.
Very true…what a coincidence that Joe Volpe, former GM of the Met Opera, is the Executive Director. Whatever many thought of Joe, he has never overseen the demise of an organization.
Congratulations to the Sarasota Ballet!
He hates culture as much as he hates Florida
Good ol’ Rona DeathSentence waltzes in (wearing his lifted cowboy boots) to once again burn down anything he doesn’t understand.
Guess he needed a new target after Disney reminded him who is *really* boss of the Flordia-man state.
Actually, Disney came out on the (very) short end of the stick. It Disney’s the boss, the boss got owned.
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disney-reaches-settlement-with-florida-tax-district-backed-by-ron-desantis-6dd03acf
In a country founded on a tax revolt, and which is congenitally incapable of the idea that even health care ought to be supported by tax-payers, Florida is the most anti-tax state of all. The reason top golfers — who make obscene amounts of money — congregate in Fla is not only the nice climate and beaches. It is the absence of a state income tax. The same reason attracts more snowbirds to Fla than to other equally climatically agreeable states.
I read a few Fla papers reporting this story, and read the comments: the vast majority support this initiative, not because the state is in dire straits — the word surplus was mentioned in a few posts — but because Floridians do not believe taxpayers should support anything except roads and bridges.
This, alas, will not cost DeSantis a single vote, and may gain him some.
I wonder how it will affect Cleveland’s residency?
And I feel for an aging Edward Villella, who brought ballet to Miami.
Since he is (thankfully) termed out he doesn’t care about votes. He associates arts with gays. He’s hateful and short sighted
He’s preparing for the 2028 Presidential Election. He treats we Floridians like the dirt on his cowboy boots (with lifts),
“but because Floridians do not believe taxpayers should support anything except roads and bridges.”
And the military, presumably.
Wow. The Freedom State. What a joke. The largest shortage of teachers in the country. Now all funds taken away for children’s art, music, and culture programs, along with all other art n music programs. Instead, he’ll put the $$ into Far-right Christian schools, with his indoctrination plans. And of course the $75 million gym for his Christian school. You’re gonna end up in a State with no teachers. No culture.Books banned. Movies banned. But everyone can go to church n sing hymns then go home and pray that the freedom stealing Democrats will die. The only ones taking away your freedoms are Republicans
What more arts do you need in Florida than Lara Trump?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQML0_YASCI
https://www.facebook.com/JimmyKimmelLive/videos/we-played-a-terrible-song-from-lara-trump-but-told-people-it-was-from-the-new-ta/809876671021660/
DeSantis, who is supposed to be a graduate of Law School, having attended Yale and Harvard, seems not to have learned simple logic in the process. He wants to “save” money in a State which is rapidly growing, in spite of Climate Change. In my city, alone, the population increased by 14,000 [fourteen THOUSAND!!!!] in ONE YEAR! Logic would suggest that increased expenditures would be necessary to meet the needs of those extra thousands, as well as the simple fact that those Cultural Organizations bring much needed revenue in taxes and employment to the State. He is a mean-spirited, uncultured, football-scholarship-“educated” hick.
Don’t like him much, but for the sake of accuracy, Yale gave him a baseball scholarship which they hide as something else “academic”.
I wouldn’t expect anything less
The comments are what one would expect from a largely knee-jerk liberal readership. The essential question is whether the state should support a minority interest and if so why. I am a fairly generous personal supporter of the arts I enjoy but I have mixed feelings about government funding.
I wouldn’t characterize the vast majority of readers here as knee-jerk liberals. But I would characterize a small minority of readers as unthinking morons who don’t have a clue about the economics of supporting the arts and how study after study has shown how beneficial supporting the arts are to an overall economy and growth, producing far more in economic gains than the relatively few pennies of government money it consumes.
But hey, why bother reading any of those studies when knee-jerk unthinking responses come from absolute certainty which almost always includes a belief that global warming is a liberal hoax, a belief that the 2020 election was stolen from convicted felon Trump, etc.
unthinking morons/kneejerk liberals=potato/potatoe
Enjoying the idea of an ‘entitled’ ownership of the arts, are you? You people act like house cats – you yhinkk you’re all so self sufficient and have no clue of how much infrastructure is needed to support your personal option only to support some of the arts some of the time. You need to be more generous with your understanding.
“knee-jerk” – no, it’s a life-long, deep-seated understanding of the fundamental value of the arts in the human imagination and intellect, and of the transformational value in human development of being able to draw inspiration from live performances of works of art created across history. The essential questions are why non-liberals fail to appreciate that what they glibly dismiss as a “minority interest” is actually a thread that works its way through most forms of culture that enrich human life on a daily basis, and why they cant see the fairly minuscule amounts of government funding are an invaluable investment that brings disproportionately huge returns, both financial and intangible. A sincere enjoyment of the performing arts should naturally engender an understanding of the fragility of the arts eco-system, but clearly that doesn’t always happen.
Assuming that everyone who visits this site, and reads and votes on comments, has a genuine interest in the performing arts and music, I’d be fascinated to know the reasons for the down votes received on the comments made above in response to John P by Herr Doktor, Hmus, and me. Do those voting down want to see live classical music die out? Do you not understand the need for subsidies? Are you knee-jerk reactionaries?
“..largely knee-jerk liberal readership.” First time visitor here?
Like most I hate to see cuts at Orchestras, Arts orgs, and such productive or educational places such The Perlman Music Program now to be down a 200k grant. But the total Arts slashes do account for less than 4% of the total potental reductions. Meanwhile most U S. States that are financially saavy are trying to find ways to stay with or steer toward sensible fiduciary health, while the Federal D.C. gang recklessely pursues votes via financially influencential policies that bring the days of hardship reckoning closer. One can easily find DeSantis’ veto list on line, however it is noteworthy that the Florida legislature can overide them with a proper majority vote. So volley over to the potential grantees to raise the issue and lobby for their cause. Again to look at his hit list, he certainly hits many diverse targets and without question he has his preferences. Tell me what political person does not? He is certainly conservative, yet one should realize that the vast majority of the Florida residents are the constituents he represents. I give him credit for unabashadly being DeSantis. Personally we would all be better off now in the U.S. with leaders with his conviction and backbone, lest we are overrun by the wokerati and their ill conceived and poorly thought out initiatives.
I think you are confusing “conviction” and “passionate intensity.”
If you mean passionate intensity as the better choice of words in that statement then thank you.
I refer you to the original author of the construction. And I doubt you will be thanking me.
DeSantis probably confused arts and culture with Disney World.
The two main places where classical music survives in Florida are Palm Beach and Jacksonville, where there is plenty of money for support. The University of Miami in Coral Gables which has grown it’s conservatory into something worth mentioning with terrific staff like Jerry Schwartz and Kim Josephson for example, but most of their top tier grads leave the state. The real question is where is DeSantis diverting those funds?
Won’t the state of Florida vote this miserable, insecure person out of office? Ugh.