Deficit is raining on NEA’s parade

Government bucks for the arts were scarce in 2004 -- not even Laura Bush could get what she wanted.

In January 2004, the first lady put her weight behind a new cultural wheel that was supposed to roll through all 50 states: She announced her husband’s proposal for an $18-million boost in the National Endowment for the Arts, the biggest increase in 20 years. Of that, $15 million would go to a new program called “American Masterpieces,” sending signature works in dance, music and visual art to all corners of the nation.

By year’s end, fiscal reality had rained on creative ambition: Congress had become leery of mounting deficits, and the $388- billion bill for nonmilitary/non-Homeland Security spending that President Bush signed in December virtually wiped out his proposed arts increase. The endowment’s spending authorization for 2004-05 comes to $121.3 million -- an increase of $292,000 over the previous year. As for “American Masterpieces,” it’s now budgeted at $1.9 million and limited to visual arts only.

The NEA is living large compared with its counterpart in Sacramento. California sports a $3.1-million arts budget that’s last in the nation in per-capita spending, with almost no money for the California Arts Council’s customary grant-making.