January 2007 Page 4

> KANSAS CITY ORCHESTRA'S LAWSUIT MAY THREATEN ALL MISSOURI ART FUNDING?

Symphony’s suit scaring some arts advocates
They worry that the KC orchestra’s court action jeopardizes their state aid.
By ROBERT TRUSSELL
The Kansas City Star

Leaders at the Kansas City Symphony thought it was time to do the right thing: Force the state of Missouri’s hand and make it live up to its commitments.

But some arts advocates fear that suing the state for $83 million — the amount that the symphony thinks the Missouri Cultural Trust has been shortchanged — may have alienated Gov. Matt Blunt and jeopardized future arts funding.

Mike Vangel, chairman of the Missouri Arts Council, called the lawsuit “ill-advised” and “baffling.”

“From my perspective, they’ve thrown a tantrum and put arts funding for everyone else in jeopardy,” Vangel said.

Janette Lohman, a St. Louis lawyer who is the president of Missouri Citizens for the Arts, a nonprofit lobbying group, said she had no advance warning about the lawsuit.

“If I had, I would have been on my knees begging them not to,” Lohman said. “There is not a single arts advocate in Missouri who would not advocate fully funding the trust. What amazes me is that Governor Blunt and his administration have all been working very closely with the arts organizations and the Missouri Arts Council to try and increase the funding.”

Since the lawsuit was filed last week in Cole County Circuit Court, word has rippled through nonprofit arts organizations across the state that the governor’s office had sent a message: All potential arts funding in the budget that the governor will announce on Jan. 24 has been withdrawn from consideration.

“The word I received from the governor’s staff was that when the lawsuit was filed, all the funds were off the table until further review,” said arts lobbyist Kyna Iman. “That has not been made official.”

Jessica Robinson, a spokeswoman for the governor, said she had no direct knowledge of any communication between the staff and arts advocates after the lawsuit. She added that the budget had not been finalized and that all funding proposals were still “on the table.”

She did suggest, however, that arts funding could be held back if the lawsuit dragged out for years.

“That is a potential,” she said. “The bottom line is that Governor Blunt has made a commitment to make sure that dedicated taxes are directed to the appropriate recipients.”

The Missouri Cultural Trust was created by statute in 1993. It was intended to be an endowment for the arts council and is funded by personal income taxes collected from out-of-state professional athletes and entertainers.

The legislation allows the General Assembly to transfer as much as $10 million a year into the trust with the goal of reaching $100 million to make the arts council self-sustaining.

But the annual transfers never approached $10 million. The previous governor, Bob Holden, faced with huge budget deficits, cut all funding to the trust for three consecutive years and in one of those years eliminated any money for the arts council.

The lawsuit argues that the payments into the trust are legal requirements, not options.

“We’re simply asking that everyone just follow the law,” said Frank Byrne, the symphony’s executive director. “The symphony took this step very reluctantly … but I think it was a sense of responsibility about the long-term security of the arts. … Sometimes someone has to step forward and take action.”

Marc Wilson, executive director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, said he supported the lawsuit as a “statement of a moral position” and dismissed any threats to cut future arts funding as “childish.”

Jeff Bentley, the Kansas City Ballet’s executive director, said he understood the reactions of concern to the lawsuit.

“I wouldn’t want to see anything signaled to the governor that we didn’t appreciate the movement forward that (he has) shown quite clearly,” Bentley said. “On the other hand, it was something the legislature passed. It was a requirement, not a suggestion.”

But Vangel said he could appreciate the governor’s position.

“Just speaking as a citizen, it’s kind of hard for me to imagine the state is going to fund the arts when they’re being sued by the arts,” he said.

On Wednesday, Vangel wrote Blunt that the boards of the arts council and cultural trust viewed the “ill-advised, unilateral” lawsuit as a threat to the “spirit of cooperation” that the governor had forged with the arts community.

The episode has left Lohman with mixed emotions because of her respect for the symphony.

“The Kansas City Symphony is a pillar in the arts community,” she said. “That’s why we’re all in shock. Obviously they have their reasons, and obviously we are 100 percent behind them in wanting to get the trust funded. We just don’t agree with the method.”