Take action now for investment in arts businesses and opportunities

Here's Create Wisconsin's call to action and a message that can be personalized, to send to legislators. Read below for all the info on this important issue.

Update 5-26-22:  The Joint Finance Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, May 31, at 10 am.  The Arts Board's 13.10 issue is not yet on the agenda.  Since time is of now of the essence, it's better to call than email.  You can find contact info for legislators here.  You can speak to a staff person or leave a voicemail, and your message can be brief and to the point:

Please include the Wisconsin Arts Board's 13.10 request to the Joint Finance Committee meeting agenda on Tuesday, May 31.  The request is for FY2022 funding in the amount of $109,200, which is equal to the additional state match required to spend federal funding awarded to the Arts Board from the National Endowment for the Arts. This funding is an investment that serves communities and constituents in your district and supports a variety of jobs and businesses.  Thank you.

More info here: The Wisconsin Arts Board submitted a 13.10 request in November 2021 to the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee (JFC) for FY2022 funding in the amount of $109,200, which is equal to the additional state match required to spend federal funding awarded to the Arts Board from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This funding is an investment in arts and cultural programming and services that serves communities and supports jobs and businesses.

The NEA requires a dollar-for-dollar match from the State of Wisconsin for the funds that it grants to the Wisconsin Arts Board each year. Due to an increase in the NEA’s budget last year, the NEA’s grant to the Arts Board also increased, which is great news.  However, the increased grant amount was announced in Spring 2021 after the state’s budget process was well underway, and so the Legislature was unable to increase the WAB’s budget by the $109,200 needed to meet that match requirement.  

This timing problem has happened before, and not just to the WAB.  State agencies in this situation may submit a 13.10 request to the Wisconsin State Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance.  Unfortunately, the request hasn’t made it onto the actual agenda of a 13.10 meeting yet. Even though the Legislature has ended its session for 2022, Joint Finance can still meet to consider 13.10 requests, so we need to keep asking that the agenda include the Arts Board's 13.10 request. Many constituents have been contacting their legislators to ask that JFC consider the request. 

If your organization is affected by this inaction, and if you haven't contacted your legislators yet - especially if any of them sit on the Joint Finance Committee - your action is needed to let the JFC members know that approval of the 13.10 request is a critical issue for Wisconsin’s creative sector, its audiences, and its communities.  If you have already contacted your legislators, contact them again.  The more voices heard, and the more often they are heard, the better.

If your legislator is a member of the Joint Finance Committee (list here), it's especially important to contact that representative, as soon as possible.  Even if a legislator isn't a JFC member, it's still worth contacting them to let them know that this request needs to be considered.

Use our template message to make your voice heard.  Please personalize with information from your organization or business for greatest impact.  Please let Create Wisconsin know if you hear back from your legislators.  And, please continue to share this advocacy request with your networks to get as many messages to legislators as possible.

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