The arts in
Miami-Dade has an economic impact of almost
One Billion Dollars
With new property tax reforms, the threat to government funding for the arts is real. The cultural community needs to be proactive.
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actions & Alerts

 

Follow-up and Action Steps re: Proposed $3.5 Million Cut to the County’s Cultural Budget

At the recent town meeting convened by the Department of Cultural Affairs alerting the cultural community about the $3.5 million budget cut currently being recommended for the County’s cultural budget, the Dade Cultural Alliance (DCA) promised to provide an advocacy action plan for immediate implementation to counter this preliminary budget proposal.  All communication and advocacy on this issue needs to happen before the end of August in order to have an impact, so please do whatever you can by August 24th.  The County Commission’s first Budget Hearing is on September 6th, and many of its budget recommendations will be formulated and determined in the weeks leading up to the first budget hearing.

Here is what needs to be done immediately (if clicking on the links below doesn’t work for some reason, you can “copy and paste” the links into your web browser):

  1. Write to and/or call County Commissioners immediately and ask everyone on your board and on your mailing lists to do the same (for convenience, a sample letter is attached, which can be personalized and adapted as you like).  For additional “impact of the arts” facts, please click here: http://www.miamidadearts.org/documents/Impact_of_Arts-Miami-Dade.pdf

    In particular, make sure your County Commissioner (the Commissioner for your electoral district) hears from you and make sure they know you are their constituent.  Also, please bear in mind that the County Commission did not make these initial budget recommendations, but has the power to change them.

    To find (or confirm) which of the County Commissioners is yours, click here: http://gisims2.miamidade.gov/CServices/CSMap.asp?Cmd=DUMMY&ShowWhat=12.

    Or, to go directly to “contact your Commissioner” if you know which Commissioner is yours, click here: http://www.miamidade.gov/commiss/contact.asp

    Please note: Commissioner Natacha Seijas does not use email – a phone call, fax (305-375-2011) or regular letter is required to reach her.

 

  1. If you or someone associated with your organization has a particularly close relationship with any member(s) of the County Commission, meet with/dine with/ golf with/play poker with those individuals ASAP, and ask for and secure the Commissioners’ support for restoration of the County’s full cultural budget.
  2. Thank you to all who have contributed $25 already to the DCA to help get our website back up and running.  Our website is going to be the “go to” place to get up-to-the-minute status updates, strategies, and information on the cultural community’s advocacy efforts.  We need you and others to contribute additionally to this effort.  If you can help out, please open the attached form, complete and submit it as soon as possible.
  3. Expect more action alerts from us in the coming weeks and act on them as soon as you get them.  Our window of opportunity is right now and is short – so we cannot afford to delay our actions at all.

Thank you.