House Bill 5002
The conference report on House Bill 5002 (2006 Special Session I), reflecting the budget compromise widely reported in Saturday's media, contains precisely the same appropriations for the Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA) as included in Governor Warner's Budget Bill as introduced back in December 2005. The Senate approved this conference report on Monday afternoon (June 19), and the full House is expected to follow suit on Tuesday afternoon (June 20). What this means in dollars-and-cents terms is that state general fund support for grants to arts and cultural institutions made through the VCA will increase to just under $4.5 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, and increase again in the following fiscal year (that is, the one that begins July 1, 2007) to just under $6 million. We have thus come substantially closer to achieving our long-sought goal of one dollar per capita in general fund support for these vitally important grants, and this goal now truly lies within our grasp.
The total state appropriation, which includes funding for administration, compares as follows:
Fiscal Year 2005-2006 $3,543,395
Fiscal Year 2006-2007 $4,873,428
Fiscal Year 2007-2008 $6,373,970
Virginia will have jumped from 49 cents per capita in FY 2005-2006 to 80 cents per capita in 2007-2008, representing a significant achievement for Virginia advocates.
This would not have been possible without the dedicated advocacy efforts of hundreds of supporters of the arts through Virginia.
Alan D. Albert
Legislative Counsel
Virginians for the Arts
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