By Andy Graham, Herald-Times
agraham@heraldt.com
The arts, public broadcasting, tourism and higher education's life sciences initiative fared well in the budget bill that cleared the Indiana House Ways and Means Committee on a party-line vote.
Committee member Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington, said Wednesday that majority Democrats moved to restore most of the funding that Gov. Mitch Daniels' budget proposal had cut in those areas beyond the broad 8 percent reduction planned for most state agencies.
The Indiana Arts Commission, for example, faced a 50 percent budget cut under Daniels' plan.
"Approximately 90 percent of what we've proposed is what the governor proposed, but there are some important differences in the version of House Bill 1001 that cleared the committee," Welch said. "The governor was going to cut arts agency funding by half, but we're going with that 8 percent average cut. The same goes for public television and radio and community corrections."
Sally Gaskill, Indiana Coalition for the Arts board president and longtime arts advocate on the Bloomington scene, was appreciative.
"I think arts advocates from around the state were successful speaking with legislators, reminding them that arts are so important to the economy of the state, to our education, to our quality of life. In fact, one legislator from Gary told us she'd heard more from arts advocates this year than she did from people last year regarding property tax," Gaskill said.