Posted on 06/11/2008 2:13:06 PM PDT by GOP_Lady
54 groups share nearly $1 million in cigarette-tax money for arts projects
by Karen Sandstrom / Plain Dealer Reporter Tuesday June 10, 2008, 3:49 PM
Over the next year, cigarette-buyers in Cuyahoga County will help pay for a summer arts program for 1,000 young people in neighborhood parks as well as outdoor concerts in University Circle.
Those programs are among 54 that will receive a total of $980,000 from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, the agency that administers the Issue 18 tax for the arts, levied at 1.5 cents per cigarette.
On Tuesday, trustees approved the grants to, among others, University Circle Inc. for Wade Oval Wednesdays, which provides free lunchtime music during warm-weather months. The tax will supply $39,000 of the series' $116,825 budget.
ParkWorks will bring professional artists together with kids for arts and culture events in Cleveland parks at a cost of about $60,000. The tax provides $26,100 of that.
Last fall, the agency awarded general operating grants to 68 nonprofit groups that have been in the business of presenting arts and cultural programming in the county for at least three years. Those grants total about $15 million a year for three years, constituting the biggest part of the annual tax payouts.
Organizations that applied for special-project grants need not be dedicated to the arts, but the projects themselves are supposed to contribute to the cultural advancement of the county. Applications were reviewed and scored in April by an eight-member panel of judges from out of state.
Only projects that scored at least 65 on a 100-point scale qualified for funding. The scores also will determine what percentage of the requested dollar amount each organization receives. Five that earned 90 percent or higher will receive their entire request.
Others will receive a percent amount equal to their score. That means Cassidy Theatre in Parma Heights, which received a score of 70, will get 70 percent of what it requested -- or $35,000 -- to present its 2008-09 programs. A list of all grantees and the amount of the grants is available at www.cacgrants.org.
Forty-two percent of the funded programs are performances; 17 percent are instruction and education. Other types include exhibitions, fairs and festivals, public art, new work and artist-in-residency programs.
One day, I was assisting the attorney (a dem) who was managing this campaign to FUND THE ARTS. I saw he had literature on this campaign issue, and I asked him, "What's going to pay for this funding." He looked at me and said, "A cigarette tax." You should have seen the look on his face -- it was like he was ashamed to go after this type of revenue again and again and again. I just shook my head.
As Rush stated Monday on his show, “The time has come to say, ‘STOP.’”
Nanny State PING, please. :-)
Ugh! This is getting so old.
agreed! Imagine all that could be done if we taxed, oh say, toilet paper...1.5 cents a sheet
So does this mean the next time the State wants to sue Big Tobacco for causing health problems (on a good they collected sin taxes on to PAY for the damage said product does to society) they will be up the creek without a paddle?
How ironic that increasing cigarette taxes is politically popular, yet the gov’t is getting tax money from an activity that others in gov’t discourage.
Nobody wants a general tax increase, but a cigarette tax increase is ok, because it’s taxing an activity that most people won’t be affected by.
http://www.cacgrants.org/file_uploads/file102.pdf
PDF File listing of all the grants.
Time to break out my T-shirt:
Support the Arts ~Smoke~~~
Thanks!
FYI ... 1.5 cent PER CIGARETTE.
You’ll have to have an AWFUL lot of t-shirts:
Support “the arts” — smoke.
Support “children’s healthcare” — smoke.
etc., etc., etc.
Cigarette taxes paid Cleveland’s beautiful Progressive Field (formerly Jacob’s field). I’ve never been there, but I was told that one could smoke in an outdoor area that had picnic tables. Later, it was in a much smaller and confined area. Now, you can’t even go outside of the ballpark and come back in — they won’t let you.
1.5 cents a cigarette? 30 cents a pack?? $3.00 a carton???
WOW
Convenience stores should post signs:
Support the Arts ~ Buy your Smokes here
This message approved by,
Cuyahoga Arts and Culture Agency
And that’s no /sarc
I’m getting real sick of the holy than thou’ gov’t.
I have reached “THE POINT,” I’m afraid. Hopefully a lot of others have too. It’s time for us to stop dictating to each other what we can and cannot do (within reason, of course). Either we’re adults or we’re children. It’s time for us to make up our minds. It’s sad it’s come to this point. I see a lot of unhappy adults because of this. Everyone is getting madder at each other, at law, and at government as a result of all of this. Keeping smiling though.
"This is a stick-up"
“It’s time for us to say, ‘STOP’” PING.
Dr. Siegel, in his accidental Hillary moment of truth, would have exposed his elitist views about how only the unwashed masses smoked cigarettes and the rich bourgieous ruling elite who liked ballet and the fine arts were taking advantage of them.
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