We all remember the budget crisis of 2004-05, when the Erie County budget came up $108 million short. It was then that County Executive Joel Giambra, standing in front of the cameras and microphones, held up his starkly contrasting “green” and “red” budgets in a childish effort to convince the Legislature to pass, and the public to accept, a one percent hike in the sales tax. The green budget was the happy-go-lucky one that would see life here continue on an even keel, given the tax increase. The “red,” or “scorched earth,” budget was the one that he promised would end life in Erie County as we knew it: 1,000 County employees laid off, road crews reduced, library funding drastically reduced, cultural funding completely evaporated. The Legislature didn’t budge, and two months later it all became reality.

One of the hardest hit groups in the County was the cultural organizations. Though partial funding was restored to the Big Six—the Buffalo Zoo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society and Studio Arena Theatre—42 smaller organizations lost all of their county funding, amounting to nearly $1 million. Local institutions like Hallwalls, CEPA, Just Buffalo, Squeaky Wheel, the African-American Cultural Center and Theatre of Youth were left to languish, their operating budgets severely axed. They canceled performances, terminated employees and generally did anything they could to stay open (a $250,000 grant from six local foundations helped tide them over until money was available in the next budget).

Today, most of those institutions have recovered, for the most part. They received regular funding in the 2007 budget and have learned to rely more on private donors for support.

A question that remains in many peoples’ minds, though, is how can we prevent another budget meltdown from endangering our cultural organizations?

Joel Giambra is attempting to answer that question. In a move to save face and leave office with his head held high, Giambra announced Wednesday that his office is proposing a law that would guarantee county funding for local arts organizations.

The proposed legislation, which needs to pass the Legislature in order to be signed into law, calls for 3 percent of the county’s real property tax levee to be set aside for funding the arts. That money, which Deputy Executive Bruce Fisher estimates at around $5.65 million, would continue arts funding at current levels far into the future.

“The threshold question,” Fisher said in a recent phone interview, “was does this community want to have an ongoing commitment in the law to supporting and sustaining the cultural institutions here? We answered that question emphatically yes, and so do the volunteer leaders of the institutions that are supported by the county.” That’s a reasonable assertion on the executive’s part, especially considering that local cultural organizations spin off nearly $141 million in economic impact each year, about 25 times the funding they receive from Erie County.

The money will be taken from the property tax levee rather than the sales tax levee because there are already too many hands in the sales tax pot. Currently, the 8.75 percent sales tax is split as follows: four percent goes to the state; three percent is divided between the county, school districts and cities and towns within the county; and 1.75 percent is kept wholly by the county. And that formula is up for renewal every year, sparking further debate about who gets what. The entire property tax levee, however, goes to Erie County and, as such, is guaranteed.

Besides guaranteeing funding to cultural organizations, Fisher says the legislation will also seek to write the funding process into law. That process is one that has worked well since its inception over twenty years ago. It was then, in 1986, that the 25-member Erie County Cultural Resources Advisory Board (ECCRAB) was created. ECCRAB is an all-volunteer board appointed by the county executive and charged with reviewing applications from cultural groups for county support and making recommendations to the county executive regarding funding levels. “They go through a process of due diligence,” says Fisher, “where they do site visits to cultural organizations large and small, look over the books, interview the board, interview the executive director, do an analysis of the finances of each of these and essentially do reality tests on business practices.” It helps keep the funding process apolitical, or less political, at the very least.

Giambra’s office doesn’t expect any major opposition to the provision calling for guaranteed funding to the arts. Making the ECCRAB process into law could be a bone of contention, though, if legislators perceive it as taking their power away and handing it to an appointed board. Fisher assured Artvoice that that’s not the case, though. “There’s a safe-guard built in. If there’s a budget crisis in the future, the Legislature’s decision making is still the ultimate guide.”

Fisher concludes simply: “We need, as a matter of public policy, as a matter of community continuity, to make this funding a permanent feature of the landscape and not something that’s subject to the whims of this year’s political discourse.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

To respond to this article, send email to editorial@artvoice.com