March 21, 2005
A question of priorities | A proposal to fund the creative economy faces scrutiny
By Michaela Cavallaro
As March winds down, the Legislature is poised to take up Gov. John Baldacci's proposed $5.7 billion 2006-2007 budget, sure to be a contentious topic given legislators' differing perspectives on topics ranging from cuts in social services to financing a budget gap by selling future state lottery proceeds. Once the budget is resolved, lawmakers plan to embark on the next round of discussion on a state bond package.
Baldacci presented his bond proposal, a total of $197 million for projects including the Land for Maine's Future program, various research and development initiatives and state highway improvements, in early February. And lawmakers have filed requests for a myriad of bonds totaling $1 billion. Amidst that sea of funding proposals, one has drawn a disproportionate amount of attention: Sen. Beth Edmonds' proposal of a $25 million bond devoted to the infrastructure needs of libraries, theaters, museums and other arts and cultural organizations. "We need to get a public discussion going about the fact that this is an important piece of our economy," says Edmonds. "And people need to understand that these [cultural] programs in small towns and big towns provide a real center around which economic development happens."
In part, the attention paid to Edmonds' proposal by other legislators and the media ˆ including this newspaper ˆ is due to the bully pulpit she occupies as president of the state Senate. But Edmonds also has tapped into what has become an ongoing discussion about the role of the so-called creative economy in statewide economic development. (Baldacci, whose focus on the creative economy is a hallmark of his administration, allocated $5 million for the sector in his bond proposal.) However, it remains to be seen whether legislators ˆ and voters ˆ are ready to make the connection between, for example, a library renovation and the state's economic growth.
For Senate Minority Leader Paul Davis (R-Sangerville), the question isn't whether investing in cultural institutions is worthwhile. Instead, he says, it's about simple priorities in a time of limited state funding. "I'm far more concerned about our crumbling bridges and roads than those types of things," he says, referring to the creative economy. "You can't have any kind of economy if you've got crumbling bridges and roads."
Capital needs
When Edmonds presented her bond proposal at a mid-February press conference, it was accompanied by the release of a survey by the Cultural Affairs Council of Maine, which found that the state's cultural facilities are in need of more than $340 million in capital investments. While the relevance of the survey's results may be debated ˆ the cost estimates came from individual institutions, and included items as diverse as roof repairs at the Maine State Grange in Augusta and a heating system at the St. Francis Historical Society in Aroostook County ˆ Edmonds says the link between cultural institutions' facilities and overall economic development is clear, although hard to quantify.
"What we've noticed is that when people who come to L.L. Bean have shopped all they want to shop, then they realize Brunswick has this wonderful music theater and they say, 'Jeepers, let's go see a show,'" she says. "If we can extend people's visits to Maine by even one day, we can increase the economic value for their trip, and we're setting the stage for people to come back to Maine."
Indeed, baby boomers' interest in cultural tourism is making the sector one of the fastest growing parts of the tourism industry, according to Charles Colgan, professor of public policy and management at the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. "One of the things we know from the tourism surveys that we do ˆ that [the Department of Economic and Community Development] does ˆ is that Maine ranks very high on outdoor amenities, but fairly low on cultural amenities, on arts and things to do on a rainy day ˆ or at least that's the way we're perceived."
Changing that perception takes time, and often a series of small investments rather than one large effort, says John Rohman, CEO of WBRC Architects Engineers in Bangor and chair of the Maine Arts Council. Rohman was one of the earliest boosters of the creative economy concept in Maine; he says Bangor is experiencing a downtown revival in large part because of infrastructure investment ˆ along the same lines as that laid out in Edmonds' bond proposal ˆ by arts and cultural organizations, aided by financial support from the city.
"Essentially here we have taken taxpayers' dollars and invested those in the UMaine Musem of Art, the children's museum, the Bangor library. And as a direct result of those investments, our downtown has now seen strong revitalization," he says. "The number of restaurants has increased in the last 12 years, from something like five to 26. And I don't know the real figures, but the second and third floor vacancy rate is dramatically decreasedˆ That's the kind of interest you have in a community when the cultural pieces and family pieces have been improved."
In his role as co-chair of Baldacci's creative economy council, Rohman says he plans to go on the road in late March, "peddling the bond to economic developers" across the state. At the same time, the Legislature likely will begin what Edmonds and Davis agree will be a difficult discussion about which projects deserve funding, although they're both hopeful that, unlike last year, agreement on an overall bond package is possible.
And whether the creative economy ends up on that list, they say, will come down to a matter of priorities.
Baldacci presented his bond proposal, a total of $197 million for projects including the Land for Maine's Future program, various research and development initiatives and state highway improvements, in early February. And lawmakers have filed requests for a myriad of bonds totaling $1 billion. Amidst that sea of funding proposals, one has drawn a disproportionate amount of attention: Sen. Beth Edmonds' proposal of a $25 million bond devoted to the infrastructure needs of libraries, theaters, museums and other arts and cultural organizations. "We need to get a public discussion going about the fact that this is an important piece of our economy," says Edmonds. "And people need to understand that these [cultural] programs in small towns and big towns provide a real center around which economic development happens."
In part, the attention paid to Edmonds' proposal by other legislators and the media ˆ including this newspaper ˆ is due to the bully pulpit she occupies as president of the state Senate. But Edmonds also has tapped into what has become an ongoing discussion about the role of the so-called creative economy in statewide economic development. (Baldacci, whose focus on the creative economy is a hallmark of his administration, allocated $5 million for the sector in his bond proposal.) However, it remains to be seen whether legislators ˆ and voters ˆ are ready to make the connection between, for example, a library renovation and the state's economic growth.
For Senate Minority Leader Paul Davis (R-Sangerville), the question isn't whether investing in cultural institutions is worthwhile. Instead, he says, it's about simple priorities in a time of limited state funding. "I'm far more concerned about our crumbling bridges and roads than those types of things," he says, referring to the creative economy. "You can't have any kind of economy if you've got crumbling bridges and roads."
Capital needs
When Edmonds presented her bond proposal at a mid-February press conference, it was accompanied by the release of a survey by the Cultural Affairs Council of Maine, which found that the state's cultural facilities are in need of more than $340 million in capital investments. While the relevance of the survey's results may be debated ˆ the cost estimates came from individual institutions, and included items as diverse as roof repairs at the Maine State Grange in Augusta and a heating system at the St. Francis Historical Society in Aroostook County ˆ Edmonds says the link between cultural institutions' facilities and overall economic development is clear, although hard to quantify.
"What we've noticed is that when people who come to L.L. Bean have shopped all they want to shop, then they realize Brunswick has this wonderful music theater and they say, 'Jeepers, let's go see a show,'" she says. "If we can extend people's visits to Maine by even one day, we can increase the economic value for their trip, and we're setting the stage for people to come back to Maine."
Indeed, baby boomers' interest in cultural tourism is making the sector one of the fastest growing parts of the tourism industry, according to Charles Colgan, professor of public policy and management at the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. "One of the things we know from the tourism surveys that we do ˆ that [the Department of Economic and Community Development] does ˆ is that Maine ranks very high on outdoor amenities, but fairly low on cultural amenities, on arts and things to do on a rainy day ˆ or at least that's the way we're perceived."
Changing that perception takes time, and often a series of small investments rather than one large effort, says John Rohman, CEO of WBRC Architects Engineers in Bangor and chair of the Maine Arts Council. Rohman was one of the earliest boosters of the creative economy concept in Maine; he says Bangor is experiencing a downtown revival in large part because of infrastructure investment ˆ along the same lines as that laid out in Edmonds' bond proposal ˆ by arts and cultural organizations, aided by financial support from the city.
"Essentially here we have taken taxpayers' dollars and invested those in the UMaine Musem of Art, the children's museum, the Bangor library. And as a direct result of those investments, our downtown has now seen strong revitalization," he says. "The number of restaurants has increased in the last 12 years, from something like five to 26. And I don't know the real figures, but the second and third floor vacancy rate is dramatically decreasedˆ That's the kind of interest you have in a community when the cultural pieces and family pieces have been improved."
In his role as co-chair of Baldacci's creative economy council, Rohman says he plans to go on the road in late March, "peddling the bond to economic developers" across the state. At the same time, the Legislature likely will begin what Edmonds and Davis agree will be a difficult discussion about which projects deserve funding, although they're both hopeful that, unlike last year, agreement on an overall bond package is possible.
And whether the creative economy ends up on that list, they say, will come down to a matter of priorities.
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