Bill seeks to eliminate funding for Oklahoma Arts Council
Submitted by Steve on January 27, 2013
From Christopher Knight at the Los Angeles Times:
The arts in Oklahoma generate about $29 million in annual tax revenue for state coffers, according to a 2010 study by Americans for the Arts. So what does 23-year-old State Representative Josh Cockroft (R-Tecumseh) want to do? Eliminate the $4-million annual state subsidy to the Oklahoma Arts Council.
And why does he want to do it? As a cost-saving measure, of course.
“The time has come to set priorities and to exercise spending discipline,” Cockroft wrote to constituents in a letter defending his introduction of a bill to wipe out state arts funding. The letter purports to champion government efficiency, offering up a mathematical hallucination that might help to explain why, according to Sunshine Review, the state faces a debt of more than $36 billion.