Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance Releases Gubernatorial Candidates' Positions on Arts and Culture

Philadelphia—May 15, 2014—The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance releases the democratic gubernatorial candidates’ positions on issues relating to arts and culture.

The Cultural Alliance sent the same seven questions to Rob McCord, Katie McGinty, Allyson Schwartz and Tom Wolf and asked each candidate to respond based on their own knowledge of the issues and information provided by the Cultural Alliance. The questions and the candidates’ answers can be found here: /groundswell/gubernatorial-candidates-answer-questions-arts-culture. Katie McGinty did not respond by the time we went to press. Governor Corbett did not receive these questions because he is the incumbent and will not have a primary challenger.

The question topics included, funding for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) grant program, funding for the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC) to make grants to non-state owned museums, ways to create dedicated funding streams for arts and culture, the inclusion of art as a core subject, the Educational Improvement Tax Incentive, Film Tax Credits and the creation of Cultural Districts.

The development of these questions was a combined effort on behalf of the Cultural Alliance, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council and Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania.

	McCord	Schwartz	Wolf
PCA Funding	Supports increased funding	Supports increased funding	Supports adequate funding
PHMC Funding	Supports increased funding	Supports increased funding	Supports reforms to the program
Dedicated Funding	Dedicate a portion of sales and use tax and close exemptions on hotel occupancy tax for funding tourism	Supports finding dedicated funding stream	Hesitant on earmarks in general but supports appropriate funding
Art Education	Open to considering art as core subject	Supports increased support and focus on arts	Supports arts and music in k-12 curriculum
EITC	Maintain at current level	Will maintain EITC	Concerned that EITC can be used as a backdoor voucher system
Film Tax Credit	Supports increasing the levels but would maintain a cap	Supports expanding program	Believes all tax credits must create middle-class jobs
Cultural Districts	Supports	Supports policies to create	Will assess needs and benefits of implementing cultural districts

The Cultural Alliance is working to ensure that arts and culture is an important issue in this year’s governor’s race. The nonprofit cultural sector is major economic driver in Pennsylvania, having a $3.6 billion impact on the state’s economy. Across the state, the sector generates more than 81,000 full-time equivalent jobs, $1.8 billion in resident household income and $360 million in tax revenue.

Additionally, the Cultural Alliance’s own research shows that arts patrons are significantly more civically engaged than the general public. In 2010 only 47% of all Pennsylvania voters actually voted but 75% of arts participants voted. In the 2008 Presidential election the overall voter turnout was 69% and 89% for arts participants. In this gubernatorial race the Cultural Alliance will continue to track voting rates and produce new data for next year’s mayoral race.

“Clearly the candidates recognize the importance of arts and culture to the civic and economic health of the commonwealth,” said Nicole Allen, Director of Policy and Community Engagement for the Cultural Alliance. “Should one of them be elected, we are optimistic that they will integrate the cultural sector into their strategic plans for the future of Pennsylvania and work to increase investments into this important resource for the state.”

Governor Corbett and Mrs. Corbett have been supportive of the sector, especially this year. In Governor Corbett’s proposed budget for FY2015, he proposed a 5% increase to the PCA’s grant budget bringing the total budget to $8.59 million. Governor Corbett also proposed a 17% increase for the PHMC budget, bringing the budget to $18.74 million including $2 million for grants for non-state-owned museums.

 ABOUT THE CULTURAL ALLIANCE
Established in 1972, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance is the region’s premier leadership, research, and advocacy organization for arts and culture. Our mission is to “lead, strengthen and give voice to a diverse cultural sector that is making Philadelphia a world-class region to live, work, and play.”  Today, 411 member organizations — which range from museums and dance companies to community art centers, historic sites, music ensembles, and zoos — and the region’s cultural community as a whole — count on the Alliance for research; grantmaking; marketing and audience development; policy and community engagement; and membership services. For more information on the Cultural Alliance please visit www.philaculture.org.

When referring to the Cultural Alliance please do not use GPCA.

 

The work of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance is made possible through the generous support of committed individuals and institutions.