Political Notes
by Walton Murphy
Sheriff Daron Hall’s department was the direct beneficiary of more than $250,000 worth of budget shifting last week when, at the last minute, the Metro Council robbed the paltry funding of the Metro Arts Commission (it started at $2.3 million) to pad Hall’s already flush $67.8 million budget—all in the course of passing the city’s $1.5 billion budget for the new fiscal year. So you’d think Hall would be glad to get the extra resources, right?
Wrong. Why? Because he’s been on the wrong end of budget shenanigans before and knows how it feels. And presumably, he sees the Metro Council as the shameless, shortsighted reprobates they are (our words). “I think it’s a problem with the executive and legislative [branches], where it seems so last minute and rushed that I think we all lose,” Hall says.
It’s a widespread feeling. Matt Chiorini, artistic director for the People’s Theatre at the Belcourt, is among those who will be most affected by the council’s decision to take the $258,400 from the Nashville Arts Commission and give it to the Metro Sheriff’s Office. “It’s unfortunate that the contribution, both financially and culturally, that the arts make in Nashville every single year has been ignored for what sounds like a case of politics,” says Chiorini, whose group relies on the Arts Commission for approximately 10 percent of its budget.
Council member Charlie Tygard, who proposed the budget amendment (which narrowly passed by a 14 to 13 margin) points to the weighing needs of the Sheriff’s Office as the reason for the Peter-to-Paul fund transfer. The money will now be used to add five additional crews to the inmate community service program, which coordinates the pickup and recycling of bulk items, grass cutting and cleanup on public right-of-ways, removing illegal signage from utility poles and public right-of-ways, and additional crews to assist non-profit organizations. Because it uses inmate labor, the only expense, really, is the salary of supervising officers and equipment, which would cost an estimated three times as much if government laborers were hired.
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But with a budget of more than $67 million, the Sheriff’s Office dwarfs that of the Arts Commission. So why the 11th-hour grab? And why the Arts Commission?
Council member Harold White’s explanation suggests that some council members were particularly unhappy with the way the Arts Commission was using its grants, saying with dripping generalization that he doesn’t “feel the Arts Commission fairly distributes their allotted money…. It’s the taxpayers’ money, and it should go to the taxpayers.”
With grants awarded to 48 different arts groups, ranging from $1,000 to $500,000, others say the Arts Commission was simply in the unfortunate position of having a large enough budget at the wrong time. Council member Randy Foster justifies the transfer of funds on the grounds that litter removal is good for his constituents. “I have seen the benefit in my community of the effort of the sheriff’s department in respect to cleaning things up, bulk waste item pickup and such, and I think that service in very many ways goes to the heart of making neighborhoods of those I represent livable,” he says.
But Chiorini scoffs at the notion that scads of Nashvillians are demanding more inmate cleanup. “Less litter doesn’t make a city great; the arts are what make Nashville great,” he says. “Less litter is good, but not at the expense of arts in the schools, arts in the senior centers and arts in the news.”
Council member David Briley says the budget amendment was made hastily, without any debate or objective input from the public. “In my opinion, it’s consistent with how the council has worked in recent history, where council members are willing to scrimp and ignore the public in policymaking by making decisions in the dark.”
For the average Nashvillian, the arts cut won’t be evident—at least not immediately. “This isn’t really going to end Nashville as we know it,” Chiorini says. But by forcing everybody in the arts community to cut back, Chiorini believes Nashville will lose over time. “It sets an ugly precedent: that anytime a council member feels like playing politics, they can do so at the expense of a vital part of our community. By chipping away at what is a really vibrant and diverse arts scene, Nashvillians may find themselves one day with less litter on I-40 at the expense of less of what makes Nashville special. We’re the Athens of the South, and no student studies the golden age of Ancient Greece because of how much litter there was or wasn’t.”