Jeff Rusnak, president and CEO of R Strategy Group, a data-driven strategic communication and advocacy firm, spoke at the Assembly for the Arts (AFA) quarterly meeting on Wednesday September 6 and the Cuyahoga Arts and Culture (CAC) annual report meeting on Wednesday September 13.
His message was clear: even if the arts and culture levy passes in 2024, funding will be nowhere near levels from 2007 or 2015 when renewed. The current levy, which imposes 30 cents per pack, goes directly to cultural organizations and individual artists and supports operating costs for AFA and CAC. Pack-a-day smokers end up paying $109.20 per year per person.
Revenues and spending have declined over 50% since the beginning of the levy, which should be good news for proponents of the regressive tax. Smoking cessation is a positive health benefit but bad news for the arts and cultural organizations.
Arts funding in Cuyahoga County hit a snag earlier this year when the Ohio Senate budget, signed by Governor DeWine, allowed the county to ask voters to tax 9% of the wholesale price of cigarettes and expand the tax to nicotine vape products not currently taxed by the county for up to 10 years (as reported by CoolCleveland). State legislators, local politicians, advocacy groups, consultants and lobbyists tried to push the vape tax through the back door at the 11th hour, which would have been successful if not for the overlooked fact that a mechanism for collecting the funds for vape products does not exist. Vape products have no tax stamps.
Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls), who supported the bill, said the vape tax was no longer an option, so it was back to the drawing board. The legislature removed the cap on the tax levied, making way for more expensive cigarettes. In other words, to get back to levels anywhere near 2007 or 2015, the new tax would have to double or triple to 60 cents per pack or 90 cents per pack or more, costing smokers $218.40 or $327.60 per year. Still, the levy is likely to pass. A majority of voters in Cuyahoga County are non-smokers. Their cost for an increase in the levy is zero.
“We asked for permissive authority [from the state legislature] to change our tax, and they granted it back in December 2022,” said Rusnak during a slide presentation at the CAC meeting at the downtown Cleveland Public Library. “The state said we need to tweak the language, so we went back this spring and changed it. That is where we are today.”
There is no limit or cap. The tax could go to a much higher number. “It does not mean the voters will support it,” he added.
CAC board member Charna Sherman asked him about the cost of launching and running a successful campaign in 2024. The 2015 campaign cost $1.5 million, and the 2006 campaign cost $1.2 million. The first campaign in 2003 was $750,000. He stressed that CAC cannot contribute as a public entity. Still, CAC is the decision-making body, with approval from the Cuyahoga County Council and advice and guidance from AFA.
Newly appointed board member Daniel Blakemore, philanthropy director for the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, asked for an estimate on the tax increase, calling it a “hot-button issue.”
Rusnak said work is needed to gauge the willingness of the public to support more taxes and determine the revenues that would be generated.
“We are not going back to where we were,” he said. “Remember, if this issue goes on the ballot in 2024, those funds will not be available until later in 2025.”
CAC Executive Director Jill Paulsen rushed through a vote to keep funding levels at $11.1 million for 2024 and 2025, with little discussion from the board and even less community input on two other possible scenarios. Sherman, prior to the vote which she did not endorse, asked board president Nancy Mendez and Paulsen for more time to ask the organizations receiving funding for their opinions.
“For the community and myself, this was a simple, clear explanation of where we are compared to the myriad of documents and information that does not help us, and actually confuses a lot of people,” said CAC Board Vice President Michele Scott Taylor.
Sherman said the board did not give the community sufficient time to respond to three scenarios for funding, then made a motion to conduct several public meetings over the next month before a vote was finalized. There was no discussion or second for her motion. Paulsen moved ahead with the meeting.
Several key leaders in the arts community have publicly spoken out about the decision following the meeting. Assembly for the Arts Board President Fred Bidwell told cleveland.com that it “was sort of a quick decision made without a lot of visibility to the community.”
If the recent CAC board meeting was any indication of where cultural organizations and individual artists rest on the issue, we could be in trouble. Attendance from the community is almost nonexistent, with about five people at the meeting that were not staff members and reporters, and for good reason. It is hard to watch. The meeting was broadcast live on YouTube.
Recently, CAC released its 2022–23 annual report and launched a new website, reportedly costing $40,000. On the site, CAC asks and answers the question, “Why hasn’t CAC funded the Support for Artists program at $400,000 each year?”
According to their website, their answer is this: “On average, since CAC’s inception, it has invested more than $400,000 each year in grants that directly support and fund artists. This is CAC’s only funding area that has remained steady despite the 47% decrease in CAC’s revenue since 2007.”
A public records request revealed that between 2009 and 2016, CAC funded individual artists at an average rate of $379,375 per year. In 2017, artists received no grants. Between 2018 and 2022, the amount dropped to $308,366 per year. The combined average for the period is $229,247, or far below the $400,000 per year reported by CAC.
As for 2017, when individual artists received no grants, CAC has yet to explain what happened to the $400,000 committed for that period, or 2018, 2021, and 2022, when the numbers fell below their average.
Neither Paulsen or Jake Sinatra, CAC’s director of grant making strategy and communications, responded to a request for an explanation at the time of publication. Jeremy Johnson, President and CEO of Assembly for the Arts, refused an invitation from CoolCleveland for an interview prior to the meeting.
Bruce Checefsky is a filmmaker and photographer, and published writer. He is the recipient of three Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, a Creative Workforce Fellowship, and four CEC ArtsLink Fellowships.