Kansas Sen. Jeff King figures he agrees with Gov. Sam Brownback “on 90, maybe 95 percent of the issues.”
The most noteworthy difference in the 2011 legislative session was spurred by Brownback’s plans to cut state funding for the Kansas Arts Commission through a line item veto.
King, R-Independence, was among the senators who voted to override Brownback’s Executive Reorganization Order to eliminate the Arts Commission, only to see Brownback later announce his intentions for the line item veto that effectively did the same thing, pulling about $600,000 from the state budget.
“I understand the philosophy,” that arts should be privately funded, King said, “but it wasn’t done the right way.”
King spoke about the issue Thursday in Iola as part of his districtwide listening tour.
Without the Kansas Arts Commission, the state no longer has a conduit to receive federal funding from the National Endowment For the Arts, King explained.
Last year, spending the $600,000 for KAC allowed the state to bring in more than $2 million in feeral funding, King said.
Metropolitan areas will be able to absorb the lost funding because of increased private funds.
“But that’s not going to happen in rural areas,” King said. “This decision is all about rural arts funding.”
The lost federal funds will be particularly troublesome for such venues and attractions as Iola’s Bowlus Fine Arts Center and Independence’s William Inge Festival.
Kansas is the second state in the country to disband its state arts commission, King said.
Senator: Cutting arts funding hurts SEK
