Democratic gubernatorial candidates answer questions about the arts (sort of)

After this winter, I might just vote for whoever promises to fix the most potholes, but with marriage equality, fracking, transit, and more, candidates in this year’s Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial primary on May 20 already have plenty to chew on, along with our unopposed Republican incumbent, Tom Corbett.

Broad Street Review readers voting on Tuesday should know where primary candidates stand on arts and culture funding. In a pre-election world where there is no “priority,” just “priorities” and “other priorities,” the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance teamed with the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council and Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania to pose seven questions to the primary candidates, so we know which priority arts and culture is.

Question & Answer, WNWN-style

Because there’s nothing sadder than a line of kids marching to a standardized test before they’ve ever touched a banjo or at least covered the immediate vicinity in finger-paint, here’s my summary of the questions and what Rob McCord, Allyson Schwartz, and Tom Wolf had to say (Katie McGinty didn’t respond before the Cultural Alliance deadline).

Got $0.95 to spare?

Funding for grants from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts has dwindled to less than the per capita levels of 23 other states. $1.66 is the annual per capita average of our neighboring states (except West Virginia). Do you support an increase from PA’s current $0.71 per capita to $1.66 over three years?

In an unprecedented political move, everyone agrees without answering the question. McCord “fully support[s] increased funding for the arts,” Schwartz will make increased funding (you guessed it) “a priority,” setting “a fair, representative, and achievable budget goal.”

Wolf says art is a driver of revitalization: “As governor, I will work to provide adequate State funding to the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.”

About that $1.66…Anyone?...Anyone? Nope.

Museum grants?

Governors Rendell and Corbett tinkered with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission budget, and the current funding reductions and grant application process shuts out small non-state-owned organizations. Can we bump that budget up a notch and make it more accessible?

McCord says yes and that the program should be opened to competition from other organizations, too (which ones, exactly? I’m not sure) because tourism in PA totally rocks, bringing us over $2.3 billion every year.

Schwartz will be sure to “set a fair, representative, and achievable budget goal.” Hold on. Yeah, that’s what she said a minute ago.

Wolf will work “to provide adequate funding” for all. (Whew. Mind if I sit down?)

Artsy earmarks?

Some General Assembly bills suggest a couple dedicated arts and culture funding streams, like skimming some money off the hotel occupancy sales tax or realty transfer tax. Thoughts?

McCord agrees that a “stable source of funding” is important. He wants a dedicated funding stream for tourism, which he thinks will benefit arts and culture too. Schwartz will “set a fair, representative, and achievable budget goal.” (Hey, there are more important things to do than varying your campaign language.)

Wolf thinks earmarks like this are a bad idea, but he’s committed to “appropriate State funding” for this sector.

Music and art for everyone?

Pennsylvania, unlike the federal government, doesn’t think visual arts and music are core academic subjects in public school. Would you change that?

McCord says yes…but “only after we have fully repaired and restored the damage done by years of Governor Corbett’s cuts” and “additional resources” (maybe these grow on trees?) can be applied to vet a new arts standard.

“My sons are the well-rounded men they are today due, in part, to the arts and humanities education they received in public schools,” Schwartz says. (Way to shake your answers up!)

Wolf promises to work with everyone to “efficiently and effectively integrate art and music into K-12 curriculum.”

Getting STEAM-y?

Should the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) target schools with science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) curriculums?

McCord likes EITC because it lets the private sector support disadvantaged schools. “Restoring funds to Pennsylvania’s public school districts will be my top education priority as governor.” (Hear that, Philly?)

Schwartz promises to maintain the EITC. But Wolf worries about “rewarding special interests” and diverting tax dollars from public schools, creating “a back door voucher system.”

So…anybody want to comment on STEAM and not just EITC in general? Guess not.

‘Hollywood East’?

Pennsylvania’s Film Production Tax Credit has helped create 18,000 jobs and racked up $2.7 billion in economic activity in seven years. But the total annual credit available is capped at $60 million. (I, for one, was extremely disappointed to notice that the zombies of World War Z did not, in fact, destroy Philly, but some European city the filmmakers tried to pass off as Philly with a few aerial shots.) Should we do away with that cap?

McCord says he’ll increase the cap, but not do away with it. Schwartz also says she’ll expand it (neither of them say by how much) but doesn’t say whether she’d lift the cap. Wolf is the odd man out or maybe just a film philistine. He wants tax credits “that promote long-term, family sustaining jobs,” not temporary film sets.

Cultural districts?

Should Pennsylvania have formal state policies (like localized tax incentives) to promote the creation of cultural districts?

“Yes!” McCord says. “Specifically, I look at Pittsburgh’s cultural district or Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts [yeah!] as proof that cultural opportunities draw people and development.”

Schwartz “will support policies to create cultural districts.” That’s it? You of all people aren’t going to mention Philly?!

Wolf is on board too, though he also fails to hail Philadelphia as the state’s obvious mecca of arts and culture.

Happy voting!

I hope this BSR round-up helps you make your decision if you’re heading to the polls on May 20. To read the questions and answers in full, click here.