ARTS WILL YOU BE TAXED FOR THE ARTS?

Now that local arts groups (almost) have a new governing body (the Cultural Affairs Commission) and an official new guru (Ray Nasher), the scramble begins in earnest for money- and not just paltry, temporary funds, but big-time, permanent bucks. “The city is going to become increasingly preoccupied with crime and drugs, with the elderly, and with AIDS,” says the city’s director of cultural affairs. Jerry Allen. “There won’t be enough money left over for the arts.”

But with the city’s coffers drying up, where will local arts organizations go for public money? A couple of plans could be floated sometime during the current state legislative session. One involves an “entertainment tax” on movies and sporting events. Another has to do with the local hotel/motel tax, a head tax on overnight guests that Dallas currently chooses to devote to retiring the debt on the Convention Center. Though the state allows for portions of that tax to be used to support the arts, that’s never been done in Dallas-and some say it never will. “To go after the hotel/ motel tax is to take on the Dallas Chamber of Commerce [which oversees convention and tourist business],” says Allen, “and politically that’s a fight that no one wants.”

Arts insiders don’t hold out much hope for the entertainment tax either. Early reports have it that state legislators are in no mood for dreaming up new ways of taxing. So arts operatives have a new plan-an expansion of the sales tax, with the money dedicated to supporting cultural activities.

But will lawmakers be in the mood to expand the sales tax after last session’s trench warfare over same? And, even if they are, will Dallas voters go for it? Allen is encouraged by the example of Denver, where voters in a six-county area were asked whether they would favor a tenth-of-a-cent tax for arts funding. An astounding 75 percent said they would. “They got an instant mechanism for raising some $13 million a year,” Allen says. “That takes them from being at the bottom of the pile in terms of arts funding right to the top.”

Allen especially likes the idea of tapping into surrounding cities for funding. He stresses that it’s not fair for a single city to be responsible for coming up with all the money for arts programs when museum shows and cultural programs draw huge numbers from the suburbs and surrounding areas. But Allen would modify the Denver plan in one way: it makes little sense, he says, to channel the money directly into nonprofit arts organizations, which would only “run through the money and be bankrupt again in three years.” A permanent endowment with interest and investment profits, Allen says, would ensure funding for years to come. “With this plan, in twenty years we could ensure that the arts never have to compete with fertilizer for city money again.”