Pennsylvania budget is a blow to state arts sector
On March 22nd, Lt. Gov. Austin Davis spoke to members of Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania to share his and Gov. Josh Shapiro’s vision, goals, and priorities for Southwestern Pennsylvania. During the session, Lt. Gov. Davis conveyed to the group that both he and Gov. Shapiro are incredibly competitive in their personal lives and that their competitive natures are transferable to their professional lives as elected officials. This was a theme that was reinforced several times throughout the session.
Lt. Gov. Davis expressed that he and the Governor are both tired of Pennsylvania being beaten in critical areas, including economic growth, by our neighboring states and other states in the Mid-Atlantic region. He specified that one of the priorities of the current administration, as announced in January as part of his 10-year economic development plan, is to bolster the commonwealth’s economic activity so that Pennsylvania is not lagging when compared against its benchmarks.
Knowing just how competitive the current administration is, it was discouraging to see that the 2024-25 Pennsylvania budget was signed off with no increase to state arts funding. While Gov. Shapiro did propose an increase in his first budget as Governor, which ultimately didn't pass, one wasn't included in his FY25 budget draft, making this the second approved budget under his leadership in which public funding for the arts remains flat at $9.59 million — the same it’s been since 2015.
This is despite a statewide advocacy effort that called for a $5.4 million boost to the Grants to the Arts line item, which provides individual grants to entrepreneurs within the creative industries and operating grants to non-profit arts organizations that deliver important programs that help supplement arts education and promote cultural and social activity within both rural and urban communities throughout the commonwealth. For full disclosure, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council serves as a regranting partner of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, administering these grants for Allegheny, Greene, Beaver, and Washington counties, so we know first-hand the impact this funding has on our region’s arts sector.
Even though the budget remains flat, the Arts Council acknowledges and thanks the elected officials who collectively expressed support of the $5.4 million increase to state arts funding by signing a letter to their peers. We also thank the many arts supporters who wrote their legislators requesting an increase, as well as the Pennsylvania Legislative Arts & Culture Caucus for participating in this year’s PA Arts Advocacy Day.
In 2024, SMU DataArts analyzed and ranked every state in the nation by arts vibrancy and Pennsylvania ranked 12th, but that’s in spite of Pennsylvania ranking 33rd in the nation when analyzing state-level funding for the arts ($0.82 per capita). When compared against fellow Mid-Atlantic states, Pennsylvania ranks 6 out of 8, only coming out ahead of Virginia and West Virginia. When compared against our neighboring states, Ohio ($2.16 per capita), New York ($5.63 per capita), and New Jersey ($4.92 per capita), our state is severely lagging. Increasing the Grants to the Arts line item to $15 million would have elevated Pennsylvania’s national position from 33rd to 26th.
The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council has served as a partner of Americans for the Arts in their Arts and Economic Prosperity reports for nearly two decades. Recently, the Arts Council published the Allegheny County findings for this research, demonstrating that nonprofit arts and culture created $1.3 billion in economic impact, $267 million in tax income, and $953 million in personal income in fiscal year 2023. When compared against data from other peer regions, it’s evident that arts organizations in Southwestern Pennsylvania are doing more with less, and they are making impacts in areas of cultural vibrancy and economic vitality that outpace some of our benchmarks, despite adversities of being underfunded. And that’s just data from our side of the state. Our peers in Eastern Pennsylvania at the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance share similar findings in their report.
Grants to the Arts wasn’t the only blow in the budget to the arts sector. The film industry, and the industries supported through film production, also led a statewide advocacy campaign to see Pennsylvania’s film production tax incentive increase from $100 million to $300 million. The incentive was first introduced in 2007, making Pennsylvania one of the first states to offer a tax incentive to the film industry. Pennsylvania is one of 41 states and cities that have incentive programs and, by comparison, New Jersey’s program is funded at $710 million and New York’s at $450 million, and they’re respectively only the 7th and 9th most competitive state-level programs. Over the past decade and a half, the commonwealth has failed to adjust the incentive based on more and more states vying to attract small, mid-sized, and large productions to their state. We echo the statement from the Pittsburgh Film Office noting that this calls "Pennsylvania's competitiveness for film work and production into question" and believe this has contributed to a steady decline in commercials, television series, and films being made in Pennsylvania.