Rep. Pallone: Trump NEA cuts are attack on diversity
An attack on the National Endowment for the Arts is an attack on diversity, said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey.
The proposed federal budget unveiled Thursday by the Trump administration eliminates funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, or the NEA.
Congress will now take up the issue.
“The arts herald diversity,” Pallone told the Asbury Park Press prior to the budget's release. “In my area, there are grants to translate Spanish poetry in Highland Park (for Enriqueta Carrington to translate the poetry of 17th century Mexican poet Juana Ines de la Cruz), at Crossroads (Theatre in New Brunswick) there's a grant for African-American singers and in Perth Amboy there's a grant supporting Latino arts and culture. (Trump) and his administration do not want to support the funding of Latino arts projects.”
“They don't want support anything that's not pro-Trump and right wing.”
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The NEA and also the National Endowment for the Humanities are eliminated, as is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
New Jersey arts groups received $2.3 million from the NEA last year. More than $800,000 went to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, which disbursed it to state groups.
The Council on the Arts annually disburses an additional $16 million to state organizations from the state’s hotel-motel tax. As for 2016 NEA money, $50,000 of it went to PlanSmart NJ in Trenton; $100,000 to the Newark Arts Council; and $20,000 for the Monmouth County Arts Council’s “Gateway to the Arts” project.
The Council spent the majority of the grant money to pay the Monmouth County artists who created the project's public artwork, which was displayed at Sandy Hook, on project materials and to supplement the additional staff time required, said a spokesperson
MORE: Jersey arts groups brace for Trump budget fight
Fiscal and social conservatives have long targeted the arts for cuts.
“Federal art grants should be eliminated altogether, and it’s not necessarily due to the budgetary savings that can be had there,” Heritage Foundation economist Romina Boccia told to USA Today. “We should have separation of the federal government and the arts just like we have a separation of church and state. The arts are not a federal government priority.”
Pallone said that several New Jersey communities use the arts as an economic engine to spur revitalization. These cities include Newark, New Brunswick, Rahway, Red Bank and Asbury Park.
“For every dollar that the NEA grants, nine more dollars for the arts (are) raised,” Pallone said. “The grant money is seed money and it serves as an economic engine.”
“A place like Red Bank," he said, "I guarantee you that a certain amount of money comes in from people going to the Count Basie Theatre or the Two River Theatre.”
The Basie’s economic impact on the area is $17 million a year, as calculated by the Americans for the Arts Economic Indicator.
“You would assume that Trump is for generating economic opportunity,” Pallone said. “It's not New York, or Los Angeles, it's small towns, and not just the small towns in our district; it's places in South Dakota and Wyoming. A lot of the money goes Red States, a lot of non-urban settings. Those are the places that need federal dollars.”
NEA budget of $148 million is a small fraction of a federal budget of $3.6 trillion a year.
“If you eliminate the NEA, you're going to stagnate the arts,” said Al Nigrin, founder and executive director of the New Jersey Film Festival. “You're going to get cookie-cutter pop symphonies of orchestra music by the Beatles rather than something by Stockhausen. It will eliminate the potential to grow the arts.”
Rep. Leonard Lance, R-New Jersey, is one voice who does not want to see the NEA cut.
“The President’s budget acknowledges that we tax and spend too much in this country and we need a serious plan to tackle our national deficit and 20 trillion dollars in national debt,” said Lance in a statement on Thursday. “.... Congress will have the final say on spending priorities for the nation and I want to reach bipartisan solutions on mandatory spending before our rising debt leads to economic hardship.”
Pallone suggested calling your representative and voicing support for the NEA if you don't want it to be eliminated.
"My hope is there are enough Democrats and moderate Republicans to push it back," Pallone said. "My personal feeling is I'd like to see more money dedicated to the arts, not less. I don't think the (NEA) budget is sufficient as is to create as much economic growth as the arts could allow."
Chris Jordan: cjordan@app.com