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Plan would cut a check for the arts
Published 1/19/2012 in News
By MARY CLARKIN
Special to The Telegram
The arts could require Kansas to redraw its income tax return form next year.
A bill sponsored by 40 House Republicans, including Speaker Mike O'Neal, Hutchinson, would create the Kansas Arts Commission Checkoff Fund, giving state income taxpayers the option of donating to the arts.
The taxpayer would add the donation to his tax liability or subtract it from his refund. It would be similar to four other checkoff options on income tax returns:
* Chickadee Checkoff
* Senior Citizens Meals on Wheels Contribution Program
* Breast Cancer Research Fund
* Military Emergency Relief Fund.
The approximately 40-year-old Chickadee Checkoff came first, followed about a decade ago by the Meals on Wheels option. The Breast Cancer Research Fund, administered by the University of Kansas Cancer Center, and the Military Emergency Relief Fund, helping military families, took effect about five years ago.
"We actually did see a significant drop in the amount going to the existing checkoffs," according to Jeannine Koranda, public information officer for the Kansas Department of Revenue, when the last two funds were added.
The Chickadee Checkoff dropped by 18 percent, and Meals on Wheels, by 40 percent, according to Koranda.
Plans for the Kansas Arts Commission checkoff and an arts license plate fit Gov. Sam Brownback's strategy of encouraging private donations instead of using public funds for arts, said Henry Schwaller, a member of the Kansas Arts Commission.
Last year, Brownback axed public funding for the Kansas Arts Commission. His budget for the coming fiscal year proposes $200,000 in state funding for a new Kansas Creative Industries Commission. That $200,000 would break down into $110,000 for films and $90,000 for arts, Schwaller said.
Schwaller said money generated by an income tax return checkoff would be welcome, but he expects it will be a "nominal" sum.
"My concern is it's not an adequate funding source for a state agency," said Schwaller, a critic of Brownback's cutting of public arts funding and who was replaced as chairman of the Kansas Arts Commission by the Brownback administration.
In its last funded year, the Kansas Arts Commission received about $800,000 from the state, Schwaller said. In previous years, state funding was in the neighborhood of $1.6 million and $1.8 million, attracting federal matching funds, he said.
People may be reluctant to donate to the Kansas Arts Commission checkoff if they don't know how it will be used, Schwaller said.
"There will have to be some clarification," he said.
Besides O'Neal and Rep. Joe Seiwert, Pretty Prairie, other lawmakers from this region sponsoring the bill are: Reps. Kyle Hoffman, Coldwater; Reynaldo Mesa, Garden City; Marc Rhoades, Newton; Ronald Ryckman, Meade; and Brian Weber, Dodge City.
O'Neal said the checkoff was cleared with the Department of Revenue and the governor's office. There isn't a fiscal note yet, which will estimate its impact.
The advantage, O'Neal said, is that the money generated should qualify as supplemental state funding for the purposes of earning federal matching funds.
"It is a contribution I would make and I'm sure many others would as well," O'Neal wrote in an email.
The proposed bill is brief, borrowing wording from legislation that created other checkoff options. It allows for donations in the amounts of $1, $5, $10, or any other amount specified by the donor.
"All moneys deposited in such fund shall be used solely for the purpose of funding the Kansas Arts Commission," the bill states.
The Chickadee Checkoff option generated more than $200,000 one year in the 1980s when it was the lone option. The amount donated has dropped, but it hasn't been a straight downward trajectory.
It reaps about $140,000 annually and is spent on everything from Kaw Valley Eagle Days to wildlife surveys, said Eric Johnson, section chief in the Ecological Services Section in the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, Pratt.
Johnson did not voice concern that the addition of a fifth option could hurt the Chickadee Checkoff.
"The ones who do donate are probably pretty loyal," Johnson said.
Sara Arif, director of public affairs for the Kansas Department of Aging, did not know if there would be an impact on the Meals on Wheels donations, which amounted to more than $130,000 last year.
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