Juneau Assembly splits 5-4 on paying $80,000 to restore arts grants the arts council kept

The Juneau Assembly voted 5-4 Monday to spend $80,000 restoring grants for local artists and small arts groups, after the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council kept part of its city grant money to cover its own operating costs.

Supporters said small grantees shouldn't pay for the council's financial trouble. Opponents said the spending should wait until the city's finances are clearer, and be weighed against programs cut this year.

Each year the Assembly funds the arts council, and much of that money is meant to be passed on as grants to other arts groups and individual artists. Last year the council awarded $130,000 in major grants to 15 organizations, including Perseverance Theatre and Juneau Jazz and Classics, and $15,000 to 14 artists, Alaska News reported in August.

This year the council, down to three full-time staff, wanted to cut those grants and shift money elsewhere. In September, the Assembly agreed to a one-time exception letting it keep the money for operations, the city manager said Monday. The Assembly also directed staff to draft the $80,000 appropriation so the grants could continue.

"I don't think that we should harm our grantees just in order to, you know, solve an operational challenge happening at the JAC," said Assembly member Neil Steininger, who voted yes. He said he would have preferred to give the council more operating money directly. Backfilling the grants, he said, "keeps true to what I believe our commitment was when we passed the budget."

Mila Cosgrove, sworn in earlier in the evening, said letting the council redirect the money "left some of the smaller arts organizations in the community maybe without some funding that they would normally rely on."

Joyce Niven, also newly sworn in, said her objection was "not to the JAC, but to the process." The Assembly made cuts to several programs in the last budget, she said, and if money is available, those programs should be weighed alongside new requests. The budget adopted this spring ended brushing on city trails and cut staff at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum.

Paul Kelly said he had voted to introduce the ordinance hoping voters would pass two revenue measures this month. Only one did: a summer sales tax meant for recreation. Voters rejected raising the property tax cap, 5,208 to 4,715. Until the city's finances are clearer, Kelly said, the spending wouldn't be responsible.

Nano Brooks said the council's use of grant money to stay open was "a just cause," since without the council it would be harder to get any arts grants out. The backfill could wait, he said.

Steininger, Cosgrove, Ella Adkison, Maureen Hall and Greg Smith voted yes. Niven, Kelly, Brooks and Mayor Beth Weldon voted no.