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News & ArtsMonday, March 28, 2011
Arts / Visual Art / Olympia If Lawmakers Want to Save Real Money, Slashing Arts Funding Isn't Going to Do It
Posted by Eli Sanders on Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 9:59 AM
Another day, another story about how folks in Olympia are considering cutting public art funding—maybe entirely—because of the state's $5.1 billion budget shortfall.
But say we slashed all of the state's funding for public art, just disappeared every single penny. What would that get us? Only $3 million, or less than one one-thousandth of the money we need to close the budget gap.
Where else could we look if we're looking for real money? Try the $6.5 billion in tax breaks Washington State is giving away this year alone. Here's a graph of some of the biggest tax breaks—aka tax loopholes—from my story this week:
A loophole benefiting the cosmetic surgery industry will cost the state twice as much as public art funding this year.
But in Olympia, cutting public art funding entirely is a more realistic possibility than ending the state subsidy for facelifts. Makes perfect sense!
1
Is that a joke? What conceivable reason would there be to give tax breaks to fucking private jet owners? If anything there should be massive taxes on them.
3
That's sort of hard to judge. When my boyfriend fell out of a window (long story) and lost all of his front teeth his insurance company ruled the replacement of said teeth to be "cosmetic." I can only imagine the other procedures that insurance companies also deem to be cosmetic.
4
@2 and you thought I was actually joking about Billionaires and Millionaires getting you to pay for them to drive in comfort in a private tunnel you pay for to their private jets at Boeing Field - that you pay for.
Wake up. Follow the money.
Wake up. Follow the money.
5
Was it california that tried to tax expensive/luxury/rich-people cosmetic surgeries but faced (lol) a gigantic backlash against it - in favor of a tax-increase on cheaper/poor-people operations?
6
Conservatives don't want to cut arts funding to save money. they want to cut arts funding because art makes them feel stupid.
7
They could just do what 2/3 of Seattle voters want and Kill The Tunnel.
That would save A LOT of money.
That would save A LOT of money.
8
What, precisely, is the "loophole" for cosmetic surgery? Does it give tax breaks to cosmetic surgeons or does it not impose sales tax on procedures? If the latter, what will be put in place to ensure that people seeking non-elective cosmetic procedures (like #3's boyfriend) won't have to pay the tax?
9
I don't want to sound like a shill for the rich, but if we recind the tax breaks for the software and aerospace industries in particular, wouldn't it potentially have a counterproductive effect as far as getting a lot of software engineers, code monkeys, and Ronnie and Rosie the Riveters laid off and their jobs outsourced abroad and to right to work states? The layoffs in turn could have a negative multiplier effect on other jobs and industries in the region and possibly expand Olympia's deficit from the loss of tax revenue.
10
How about a one-half-of-one-percent public art set-aside from all cosmetic surgery? Let Botox fund *intentional* performance art...
11
@9:
They get the tax breaks now, and STILL outsource to so-called "right to work" states and foreign subcontractors, so what's the point of succumbing to their blackmail tactics? And at least in Boeing's case, so far as the 787 is concerned, all that outsourcing has resulted in both a production as well as a public relations disaster for management. In fact, the ONLY thing holding that program together right now are the UNION machinists & engineers in the Puget Sound, who are spending inordinate amounts of time - and money - fixing all the problems created by shoddy outsourced components, that wouldn't have occurred in the first place had management simply utilized the knowledge and expertise of their in-house workforce.
So, let the corporations kvetch all they want about maintaining a "pro-business climate" in WA via massive tax subsidies. But when the State is facing a multi-billion dollar funding deficit, EVERYTHING should be on the table, especially corporate tax breaks.
They get the tax breaks now, and STILL outsource to so-called "right to work" states and foreign subcontractors, so what's the point of succumbing to their blackmail tactics? And at least in Boeing's case, so far as the 787 is concerned, all that outsourcing has resulted in both a production as well as a public relations disaster for management. In fact, the ONLY thing holding that program together right now are the UNION machinists & engineers in the Puget Sound, who are spending inordinate amounts of time - and money - fixing all the problems created by shoddy outsourced components, that wouldn't have occurred in the first place had management simply utilized the knowledge and expertise of their in-house workforce.
So, let the corporations kvetch all they want about maintaining a "pro-business climate" in WA via massive tax subsidies. But when the State is facing a multi-billion dollar funding deficit, EVERYTHING should be on the table, especially corporate tax breaks.
12
That "software makers" think is potentially misleading as well. I used to work for a very small, 3-person software development company. Literally just an entrepreneur and a couple people he hired. When there was a push to tax "custom software" it would have applied to us, but not Microsoft.
13
That "software makers" thing is potentially misleading as well. I used to work for a very small, 3-person software development company. Literally just an entrepreneur and a couple people he hired. When there was a push to tax "custom software" it would have applied to us, but not Microsoft.
14
@9
That being said, I suspect that Olympia probably fears that the outsourcing will go into steroid mode if breaks are recinded so I unfortunately think that little will be done on that front--Gregoire will want to ease in a democratic successor and not risk massive runnaways of the two biggest industry employers in the state on her watch.
That being said, I suspect that Olympia probably fears that the outsourcing will go into steroid mode if breaks are recinded so I unfortunately think that little will be done on that front--Gregoire will want to ease in a democratic successor and not risk massive runnaways of the two biggest industry employers in the state on her watch.
15
@10 for the Plastic Surgery for Plastic Arts win!
@13 correct. MSFT makes most of its tax exemption in Ireland and other nations that let them operate tax-free, subsidized by all other corporations and taxpayers in those nations.
@13 correct. MSFT makes most of its tax exemption in Ireland and other nations that let them operate tax-free, subsidized by all other corporations and taxpayers in those nations.
16
You say $6.5 billion, and what you show here as "some of the largest" doesn't add up to a tenth of that. So where is the bulk of it coming from?
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