NC Senate Budget Proposal: No Increase, No Cuts
The NC Senate voted to approve their proposed two-year budget on April 17th two days after it was made public. This budget, which included no additional funding for any NC Arts Council grants or A+ Schools of North Carolina, as Arts NC had requested. However, given that this is a very challenging budget year, it was encouraging that the NC Senate also did not propose any spending cuts to those programs. Now the NC House of Representatives will work on their budget proposal, which is expected to be released in late May. After that the those and Senate will work together to create a “conference budget” that both legislative chambers should be able to pass, possibly before the end of June.
There was also no inclusion in the Senate budget proposal of any specific policy that aligned with Arts NC’s priorities. We are still hopeful that legislation to address fraudulent and misleading ticket sales and H418, requiring all public elementary school students to receive both performing and visual arts instruction.
While there was no specific funding for relief and recovery grants for arts organizations impacted by Hurricane Helene, there was a provision in the proposed legislation that vaguely directed the NC Arts Council, as well as several other state agencies, to give some preference to those impacted by the storm when considering competitive grants. However, should this provision be in the final budget, Arts NC does not anticipate this having a significant impact on grant awards.
We encourage advocates to have conversations and communications about our NC General Assembly Arts Appropriation and Policy Requests in the coming weeks, either through Arts NC email campaigns or by contacting your County Captains and joining the legislative meetings scheduled.