Fort Worth arts task force begins hunt for funds

By Scott Nishimura

FORT WORTH -- The city's new high-powered arts funding task force, meeting for the first time Tuesday, challenged city staff members on the use of its hotel tax revenues but acknowledged that the search for untapped money will be difficult.

Mayor Betsy Price told the 12 task force members to start with questions of whether the city should fund the arts and, if so, how and at what level, given the city's tight budget and the competition for public dollars.

"Obviously, I think the answer is yes," Price said, but she added that she's not certain about how specifically to accomplish that.

Price charged the task force to bring back in a few months a recommendation on alternative funding sources for the arts and Fort Worth Sister Cities.

In the 2013 budget, the council slashed funding to the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County by 25 percent, and eliminated all funding for Fort Worth Sister Cities.

Price reiterated her opinion that arts funding should come from outside the city's general fund.

During their two-hour meeting Tuesday at City Hall, task force members asked city staff members several questions about the city's hotel tax, the DFW Airport car rental tax and the city's gas well revenue.

Money from the hotel tax can go to arts organizations as long as the City Council decides that the organizations promote tourism, Deputy City Attorney Peter Vaky said.

The city's share of the DFW car rental tax is not a possibility, he said, because state law ties that revenue to public works projects.

As for gas well revenues, the council has directed those dollars to other areas but could change that if it wishes, Vaky said.

Other potential funding sources, which the staff said have come up in casual discussions are: a surcharge on entertainment tickets, an opt-in donation on water bills, and more aggressive marketing that would maximize rental of the city's Fort Worth Community Arts Center.

The arts council keeps rental revenue from the arts center.

Robert Bass, a Fort Worth investor and city benefactor, questioned the city's setting aside hotel tax revenue for improvements at Will Rogers Memorial Center and Fort Worth Convention Center.

By state statute, 2 points of the 9 percent hotel tax must go toward debt service on the convention center expansion. Of the remainder, the council has directed the money to Will Rogers, the convention center, and the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau. Almost all is spent on capital building projects.

"I don't understand its being put away in a future fund, a rainy day fund," Bass said. "That is not promoting tourism in the years the tax is collected."

Bass also asked why the City Council moved arts funding to the general fund from its culture and tourism fund in 2011. The culture and tourism fund gets its money largely from the DFW Airport car tax, hotel tax and revenues generated from public events.

"My quandary is why the city got away from the quite stable funding of the hotel tax and moved it to the unstable general fund," Bass said.

In her opening remarks, Price, anticipating questions about the hotel tax, said the hotel tax "is not necessarily any more stable than our general fund" and is susceptible to economic cycles.

The task force chairman, Robert Benda, CEO of Westwood Contractors in Fort Worth, noted a national report last fall found Fort Worth's arts scene generates hotel stays.

"I think the data is out there to support that," he said after the meeting.

Task force members acknowledged that any funding source they identify, such as the hotel tax, likely has been marked for another use.

"I'm aware that there's just as much competition in the hotel tax as there is anywhere else," Johnny Campbell, CEO of Sundance Square and past chairman of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said. "It'd be great to identify a stable funding source for the arts that wasn't subject to the budget melee every year."

Julie Wilson, vice president of urban development at Chesapeake Energy in Fort Worth, said that finding funding sources "is a big challenge."

"Any funds that we're able to find will be taking from somebody else," she said.

Campbell asked the staff members whether the city has ever determined how much public sentiment exists in Fort Worth for city funding of the arts.

But Bass said, "Asking the question in that way is a biased question. I would ask [consumers] much more about their lifestyle than if their tax dollars should go to the arts."

The task force is also charged with finding alternative funding for Fort Worth Sister Cities, whose funding was cut to zero in the 2013 budget. Several task force members questioned why Sister Cities was included with the arts in the task force's charge.

The task force, which the City Council made subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act, has scheduled meetings for Jan. 31, Feb. 26, March 12 and March 27, all 10 a.m. at City Hall.

It is to make recommendations in the spring.

For the 2013 general fund budget of $583 million, the council cut $266,564 from the arts council's budget, leaving $799,691. The arts council uses the money to make grants, most recently to 43 organizations last year.

A separate budget for the public art program represents 2 percent of capital expenditures, as required by city ordinance, and can't be redirected to arts grant funding.

The city has also paid $5.34 million to run and maintain its Fort Worth Community Arts Center, half in a contract to the arts council to operate the facility and the rest in major maintenance.

Scott Nishimura, 817-390-7808

Twitter; @JScottNishimura

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