S.C. Lawmakers Restore Culture Funds; Kansas Seeks Federal Arts Aid

With strong bipartisan support, South Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature rejected Gov. Nikki Haley’s bid to eliminate all state spending for the arts, The New York Times reports.

The House voted 105 to 8 and its Senate 32 to 6 last month to override the Republican governor’s veto of $1.9-million for the South Carolina Arts Commission. The budget cuts arts spending by 16 percent, relatively modest in a year when many states imposed deep cuts in cultural support.

The override shows that “being politically conservative doesn’t preclude a love of the arts and a willingness to back that with taxpayer funds,” said Deborah B. Smith, executive director of the Newberry Opera House. “It was an inspiring turn of events.”

In Kansas, whose governor did successfully eliminate spending on culture grants, the new head of the Arts Commission is appealing to the National Endowment for the Arts to continue supporting programs in the state, writes the Associated Press.

Linda Browning Weis, who was appointed in June by Gov. Sam Brownback, on Tuesday released a letter to the federal agency asserting that the commission remains Kansas’s lead agency for arts programs even though it now has no budget or staff.

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