FCA Action Alert
Thursday, April 27, 2017 -- Budget Conference Meetings Are
Underway Now

Take Immediate Action -- see below.


Status of Budget Conference:  



The budget conference meetings to work out the differences between the House and Senate Budgets begin this afternoon at 1:30 p.m..  We hope that each of you over the last few months have communicated with members of the respective TED appropriations subcommittees, legislative leadership, and your state senator and representative regarding  appropriation requests needed to fund the ranked 2017-2018 Florida Division of Cultural Affairs (DCA) grants. 



List of Budget Conference Members Who Will Deal With DCA Grants' Appropriations in Budget Conference Meetings:


Go here  for a list of senators and representatives who will serve on the budget conference to work out these differences between what the Senate and House recommend now for Florida Division of Cultural Affairs (DCA) 2017-2018 Grants.
 

Check to see if any of these TED budget conference members represent your county; if they do, please email them TODAY -- their emails and the county or counties they represent are included.




Everyone should email the chairmen of this TED Budget Conference: Representative Chairman Clay Ingram and Senator Chairman Jeff Brandes; AND for those of you who have a member or more that represents your county, email those members, too TODAY.

A quick suggested email message is below that you can edit and get out NOW.   Please make sure you tailor the subject box and your emails to fit your organization's and/or county's specific funding requests regarding DCA grants' funding:



Dear Senator___________ or Representative________ (put the senator's or representative's name in your emails)

Thank you for your support of the Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs 2017-2018 recommended matching-grants' programs. 

I write to encourage you to (attention, arts and culture advocate -- you complete the email based on the information below that relates to your organization and county's requests regarding DCA grants' funding needs) 

Budget line item 3139:  Please provide the highest possible appropriation which the Senate currently recommends for Cultural and Museum Grants, because this line item impacts more qualified arts and cultural organizations in our county and throughout our state.  These grants impact 480 organizations throughout our state and help leverage millions in other private and public matching dollars needed to sustain these diverse, high quality programs.

Budget line item 3144A:  Please support the House's position on Cultural Facilities that would provide matching funds to all 36 recommended grant applicants.

Budget line item 3138A:  Please maintain what both the House and Senate recommend for the Culture Builds Florida budget line item, which will fund the 110 recommended grants under this category.

Thank you for your time, consideration, and support of these issues.

Your name and address

More Details Later:  We'll send you greater details this afternoon regarding budget conference meeting schedules related to our issues.