Will Atlantans support a tax for the arts?
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

The vision: "Arts and culture will be recognized as defining elements of the quality of life in the Atlanta region." The challenge: to find a sustainable, regional funding mechanism that will work to make this diverse, culturally polarized metropolitan area a premier center for the arts. The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce's Task Force on the Arts, charged with developing a common vision and action plan for advancing the arts throughout the region, commissioned Research Atlanta to study what other comparable metro areas have done to meet this challenge.

"Many cities in the U.S. use some percentage of an 'earmarked' revenue source, a part of a retail sales tax or property or hotel/motel tax devoted exclusively to arts funding," says Michael Rushton (pictured), associate professor of public administration and urban studies. "It is seen as a way to ensure stable funding, hopefully increasing the cultural profile of the city. It is important to look at the experiences of other cities to see what Atlanta can learn as its regional leadership considers whether to establish an arts funding mechanism here."

Rushton produced "Sustainable Funding for the Arts: Earmarked Taxes and Options for Metropolitan Atlanta" for Research Atlanta with research assistance from AYSPS graduate student Teresha Freckleton-Petite. In his analysis of the experiences in 10 comparable cities, Rushton offers lessons and additional questions for Atlanta.

Considerations Rushton presented include whether earmarking taxes, in general, is good public policy and how the three tax bases compare. Georgia's main experiences with earmarked revenues have been lottery funding for education and gasoline taxes for transportation infrastructure. To successfully sell a tax earmarked for the arts, he wrote, it is important to show how public interest is served. He identifies challenges presented by metro Atlanta's geography and cultural diversity, and suggests options for administering the fund allocation.

"When new taxes are earmarked for a particular purpose, like education," says Rushton, "we have seen strong voter approval for their implementation and their renewal. By identifying how public interest is served, a similar case can be made for the arts."

Whether that support would be found in metro Atlanta depends on a number of factors, he wrote. "There needs to be a precise articulation of public interest in the arts, as well as a criteria for funded projects. Defining this public interest will require some consensus-building across cultural groups. This is a challenge, but it has been done elsewhere. The different cultural communities of Atlanta could benefit in many ways from a discussion of our common interest in preserving, experiencing and enhancing our cultural life."

Related Reading

Rushton, Michael. "Political Oversight of Arts Councils: A Comparison of Canada and the United States." International Journal of Cultural Policy 8(2) (2002): 153-165.

_____. "Cultural Diversity and Public Funding of the Arts: A View from Cultural Economics." Journal of Arts Management, Law & Society, (forthcoming).