Hillsborough County spares arts funding
Hillsborough County Commissioner Donna Cameron Cepeda wants to defund the arts.
Twice in a three-week period, she targeted two county programs — the Arts Council and the Cultural Assets Commission — as unworthy of county financial support.
“I’m not convinced the county should be using public money to support these programs on the scale we have over the years,” she told commissioners on Aug. 16.
The Arts Council, created in 1989 as an independent district, became a county department in 2021. It employs four people and has an annual budget of $370,000. Among other things, it annually administers a $415,000 grants program that benefited 56 artists and nonprofit art agencies in 2023. It has the smallest budget of any of the 56 departments in county government.
Separately, a previous County Commission unanimously created the Cultural Assets Commission in 2018. It is a volunteer board that makes recommendations to the County Commission on disbursing up to $2.1 million annually in special-event grants.
At its August meeting, the advisory board recommended awards, ranging from less than $9,000 to nearly $93,000, for 25 events, including the Gasparilla Music Festival, Friends of the Riverwalk holiday spectacular, Ybor City Saturday Market and a concert series by the Tampa Bay Pride Band.
Cameron Cepeda says the groups should be privately funded and the public money would be better spent on filling potholes and building fire stations. Last week, she moved to kill the arts funding of approximately $3 million and reallocate it toward transportation and public safety.
“We’re talking millions of dollars here. This is not free money,” she said.
Cameron Cepeda found support from fellow Republican commissioners Joshua Wostal and Michael Owen, both of whom joined the board with Cameron Cepeda after the November 2022 elections.
The three Democrats on the commission, Commissioners Harry Cohen, Pat Kemp and Gwen Myers, objected.
“Quite frankly, I think of this money as an investment,” said Cohen. “...This is money that is really well spent. It’s money that helps us attract corporations and attract jobs and attract tourists.”
Cameron Cepeda’s idea also didn’t sit well with members of the arts community, 15 of whom urged the commission to continue its financial support. They, too, noted a thriving arts community benefits the county’s economy and economic development.
“It would be short-sighted to starve a golden goose just to save a bit of goose feed,” said Joshua Paine of the New Tampa Players.
The deciding vote sat to Cameron Cepeda’s right — Chairman Ken Hagan.
Hagan acknowledged he’s generally viewed as a commissioner supportive of youth sports and parks and recreation issues.
“It may surprise some to know that I’m also a big supporter of the arts,” Hagan said in joining the Democrats to reject Cameron Cepeda’s maneuver.
It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Hagan championed creating the Cultural Assets Commission and either he or his aide sits in on the meetings. Hagan also pushed for more than 15 years for the county to build the New Tampa Performing Arts Center.
One of the Aug. 25 recommendations from the Cultural Assets Commission called for allocating more than $32,000 to the New Tampa Players for its first full season of productions, including “Shrek,” “Dream Girls” and “Mamma Mia!” in the county’s recently opened New Tampa Performing Arts Center.
The issue resurfaced Thursday evening during the commission’s first public hearing on the proposed $9.03 billion county budget. Clay Hollenkamp, vice president of the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts’ board of directors, urged commissioners to maintain their commitment to the arts. A second hearing and final commission vote on the budget is scheduled for Sept. 21. The new budget year begins Oct. 1.
