TALLAHASSEE -In a potentially crippling move for the state's cultural arts community, Florida lawmakers voted Thursday to wipe out the means by which hundreds of arts, music and theater programs have been funded for decades.

The result: A $25 million dedicated source of funding for arts and culture, including programs at Miami Beach's Bass Museum and the Coconut Grove Playhouse, is likely to be eliminated.

''This is a tragic day for the arts community in South Florida,'' said Rafael De Acha, artistic director of the New Theatre in Coral Gables. The theater produced this year's Pulitzer prize-winning play Anna in the Tropics by Cuban-born playwright Nilo Cruz.

''This entire community is in mourning. It's sad that we we are saddled with a Legislature that does not understand what the arts mean to Florida,'' De Acha said.

Both the House and Senate passed bills Thursday eliminating the trust fund for the arts and putting the money into the state's general-revenue pot. The only difference between the bills: The House budget includes $6 million from general revenue for the arts. The Senate version: zero.

The House version now goes back to the Senate. If the Senate approves, the bill would go to Gov. Jeb Bush for his signature.

The legislation means that, rather than having a dedicated source of state money annually, the arts community would have to apply for funding each year and compete with every other group for a share of the state budget.

Art enthusiasts across South Florida decried the decision.

Nancy Liebman, former Miami Beach commissioner and vice chair of the city's Cultural Arts Center, called the decision ``a disgrace''.

''Cultural arts is what has made this state so appealing throughout the world,'' she said.

``I'm ashamed to be a Floridian. They are doing away with the cultural and historic preservation funding and it is outrageous. They should all be replaced.''

While Thursday's vote fell largely along party lines -- with Majority Leader Marco Rubio, a Coral Gables Republican, moving to shut down the Democrats' debate -- House leaders drew criticism from one of their party's national heroes, who also happens to be an advocate for arts funding.

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Sarasota, the former Florida secretary of state who made arts programs a priority, called the House's vote ``a matter of grave concern.''

''The arts are such an extraordinary economic development tool,'' she said. ``And this is a pittance in the state budget.''

Harris said the arts fund's existence kept politics out of the process of how state money was disbursed to programs and artists.

Rubio said he welcomed Harris' remarks, ``but if Katherine Harris can come up with some Republican ideas to fully fund these social issues and the arts, we'd love to hear them.''

For South Florida communities like Miami Beach, which has spent years raising its profile in the arts community, the implications are clear.

''This is a sabbatical for the cultural community,'' said Miami Beach Representative Dan Gelber, who voted against the proposal. ``Do we really want to be known as the Legislature that closed the theaters, locked the museums and stopped the music and dance? It's unbelievable.''

Staff writer Peter Wallsten contributed to this report.

Fuente: The Miami Herald
Abril 2003