Legislature to slash preservation grants
So far, the 2018 Florida legislative session isn’t shaping up so well for cultural and historic preservation grants. Lawmakers seem poised to reduce funding even more than they did last year.
Neither the Senate nor the House have allocated any money for cultural projects, facilities or endowment grants.
The House recommends $5 million for cultural general support grants, but the Senate has earmarked only $203,985 to be spread among 489 organizations statewide. That’s far short of the nearly $42 million in eligible grants recommended by the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs for the state’s largest cultural grants program.
In Palm Beach County, the division recommended 38 groups for a total of nearly $4.2 million in general support grants. They include the Norton Museum, Palm Beach Dramaworks, Palm Beach Opera, Kravis Center, South Florida Science Center and Aquarium, Armory Art Center, Flagler Museum and Palm Beach Zoo — all for $150,000 each.
The House has proposed nearly $1.47 million for small historic preservation grants, while the Senate zeroed out the program. Bigger historic preservation projects were recommended for nearly $3.1 million by the House and around $1.1 million by the Senate.
Legislators also have floated proposals for millions of dollars in grants to projects in their districts that bypass the Division of Cultural Affairs’ and Division of Historical Resources’ judging processes.
The Senate has been particularly generous in its proposed funding for special projects. Sherron Long, president of the Florida Cultural Alliance, speculates that’s because it’s an election year.
It’s now up to Senate and House leadership to resolve the discrepancies. A reconciled budget must be presented to the Legislature by Wednesday if the session is to end on time on Friday.
Last year, the Legislature approved nearly $25 million in cultural grants and more than $8.8 million in historic preservation grants. That was a drop from the more than $33 million in cultural grants and $12.6 million in historic preservation grants allocated in 2016.