The Cultural Trust Speaks

Here's the official word from the Cultural Advocacy Coalition, on behalf of the Oregon Cultural Trust:

Dear Cultural Partner:

Thirteen days ago you received an Action Alert from the Cultural Advocacy Coalition about the proposed $1.8 million dollar funds “sweep” from the permanent fund of the Oregon Cultural Trust. The action had just been proposed and had yet to be voted on. Since that time, the proposed funds sweeps were amended into SB 581 and the bill subsequently passed out of the Ways & Means Capitol Construction Subcommittee, out of the full Ways & Means Committee, off the floor of the Senate and out of the House of Representatives. SB 581 moved in tandem with SB 5552, which contained the agency budget cuts. Both bills will be signed by the Governor this week.

Also since that time, hundreds of you sent emails and wrote letters to your legislators protesting the sweep of Cultural Trust funds for general government purposes. In addition, many of you forwarded the Action Alert to other organizations and friends, wrote blogs, twittered, and posted comments on Facebook. In a word – wow. THANK YOU !

The legislature was moving at an unusually fast pace to address the looming budget cliff in the current budget cycle, ending June 30, 2009. The Trust funds sweep was $1.8 million of a total of almost $83 million in sweeps of other funds, in combination with $311 million in state agency budget cuts. These funds sweeps and budget cuts, added together with federal stimulus dollars, created a total rebalance package of $862.5 million. The situation facing Oregon’s legislative leadership was – and remains – very serious.

Thanks to your efforts, every legislator in the building is now aware of and sensitive to the Cultural Trust. Oregonians are clearly proud of its unique program specifically crafted to grow and stabilize funding for arts, heritage and humanities. Frankly, lots of people were surprised at the passion and outreach shown on this issue. This was obvious too, when more comments were made by legislators during floor debates about the Cultural Trust funds than on any other item – including a funds sweep of emergency-911 enhancement fees, food safety funds, and pesticide program license fees, to name a few! Your support was quite remarkable – and put the Trust front and center in this debate and for all future budget discussions this session.

Now is the time to change gears and recognize the difficult work of leadership. Legislators completed a brutal week where they voted on a package of bills that contained items they all personally disliked. They took votes that hurt and feel they did their best with few alternative options. They need some breathing room to get beyond the budget rebalance and focus on issues of the 2009 session.

Your outreach has positioned the Cultural Trust well for more action this session. First, while the budget rebalance has been completed, work to protect the Trust has not. Several options are on the table and the Cultural Advocacy Coalition will be asking for your help when a clear path emerges. Also, more work will come as the 2009-11 budgets are developed, including support for Governor Kulongoski’s proposed $5 million enhancement of funding for cultural resources.

Thank you again for your advocacy and fierce protection of Oregon’s cultural endowment.

This story was featured on KGW last night; OBT's Jon Ulsh and White Bird's Paul King spoke about how this will impact their organizations, and the bigger issue of building trust. In that story, it appeared that Senator Betsy Johnson is taking the lead on restructuring this into a loan, repayable to the trust, so I encourage folks to send letters of enthusiastic support and fond appreciation to her directly.

She can be reached at sen.betsyjohnson@state.or.us.



P.S. Have you ever met this woman? She really is amazing. Very accessible, and quite a firecracker! I had the pleasure of having lunch with her a few times, back in the early 2000s when I was developing fundingpool.com, an online philanthropy portal sponsored by eyescream interactive, which regrettably burst with the rest of the Internet bubble. Sen. Johnson has always been keenly interested in any effort to stimulate philanthropy in our community, and she was also the guest speaker at lat fall's NWBCA Breakfast of Arts Champions. I remember her warning us even then: It is going to be a fight this year. Get ready, and get organized.