The law directs the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) to create a new program that designates local districts to “attract artists and cultural enterprises to a community, encourage business and job development, establish tourist destinations, preserve and reuse historic buildings, enhance property values and foster local cultural development.”

The legislation includes no new funds for MCC, so the cultural districts program will offer no grants or other financial rewards to communities, at least in its first year. It directs MCC to work with other state government agencies to “identify state incentives and resources to enhance cultural districts.” The MCC will work over the coming months to create guidelines for the program with input from those agencies, the cultural community, and the broader public.

“We’ve seen many examples of how arts and culture help to revitalize our communities,” said Representative John Keenan of Salem, House Chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts, and Cultural Development. “A cultural district will be one more tool that cities and towns can employ in these efforts.”

The Joint Committee’s Co-Chair, Sonia Chang-Díaz of Boston, added: “The creative sector is a major source of strength for the Massachusetts economy, and contributes to the vitality of the Boston neighborhoods that I represent. So I’m delighted that we now have one more way to help this sector grow and thrive.”

Rep. Keenan spearheaded the cultural districts provision in the House with support from Reps. Steve Walsh of Lynn, Ann-Margaret Ferrante of Gloucester, and Kay Khan and Ruth Balser of Newton. It was championed in the Senate by Sens. Stan Rosenberg of Amherst, Chang-Díaz, and Benjamin Downing of Pittsfield.

“With cultural districts, MCC will have another tool in its toolbox to help cities and towns develop their cultural assets for the benefit of residents and visitors alike,” said Anita Walker, MCC Executive Director. “We thank Governor Patrick, Co-Chairs Chang-Díaz and Keenan, and their colleagues in the Legislature, for recognizing the role of arts and culture in improving the health and well being of our communities.”

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Steve Walsh (D-Lynn) has passed the Massachusetts House to allow small businesses to negotiate as a group for the purchase of health insurance.  The Senate had earlier passed a bill to allow for four pilot projects of 15,000 companies each to be created to test group negotiating.  Yesterday the members of the Health Care Cost Containment Bill Conference Committee were named to reconcile the two bills and make a final recommendation for passage.

If you have an interest in reversing the law that prohibits small businesses from aggregating into larger health insurance purchasing groups, contact the conferees identified below and please tell them that you support House Amendment No. 41, Small Business Health Plans, or more simply put, the Walsh Amendment.

Additional information:

THE BILL REFERENCE NUMBERS: Promoting cost containment, transparency and efficiency in the provision of quality health insurance for individuals and small businesses (H 4924 and S 2447)

THE HOUSE CONFEREES: Reps. Ronald Mariano, Steven Walsh, and Jay Barrows

THE SENATE CONFEREES: Sens. Mark Montigny, Harriette Chandler, and Michael Knapik

Below is a link that will provide the email addresses for the members listed above.

Dear Colleagues,

A legislative conference committee is now considering competing bills to reorganize state government agencies that foster economic development in Massachusetts. A final version of this bill must go to the Governor for his approval before the legislative session ends July 31 for the bill to become law.

We need your help to ensure that this important legislation does not compromise the mission of the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) to foster the health and vitality of the nonprofit cultural sector!

One of the goals of the legislation is to streamline government agencies that market the state under the umbrella of a new quasi-public organization called the Massachusetts Marketing Partnership.  This Partnership would oversee the Massachusetts Film Office, the Sports Marketing Partnership, and the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism (MOTT), among other agencies.

The Senate version of this bill would place the MCC under MOTT within the new Marketing Partnership. By contrast, the version passed by the House of Representatives would leave MCC where it is in the state government hierarchy: within the office of the state Treasurer, but not subject to its control.

The MCC Board believes strongly that MCC should maintain its place as an independent agency within Massachusetts state government. So we want you to tell the conferees (listed below) and the Governor to support the House version of this legislation—House Bill 4863.

Why is this important?

First, tourism and marketing are not central to MCC’s core mission. Our work involves revitalizing communities and neighborhoods through arts and culture, investing in education and youth development, and fostering civic engagement and participation in community arts and cultural activities.

We fear this work will be undervalued if MCC is charged with advancing a more narrow agenda focused on tourism.

Making the case for general operating support for organizations, funding for community arts, humanities, and science programs, and grants for individual artists, is a difficult task in an environment of scarce public resources. That argument will be made harder still if the impact of our support is measured in terms of tourism and marketing.

The cultural community of Massachusetts is unique in the public value that it provides to our communities and our citizens every day. It needs and deserves a state agency that understands that value and works on its behalf. Please add your voice to this debate and help the MCC maintain its proven role in state government.

Thank you for your help!

Anita Walker

Executive Director

Massachusetts Cultural Council

Contact information for the Governor & conferees listed below can be found via: www.mass.gov

Governor Deval Patrick

Senator Karen Spilka of Framingham

Senator Benjamin Downing of Pittsfield

Senator Bruce Tarr of Gloucester

Representative Brian Dempsey of Haverhill

Representative Garrett Bradley of Hingham

Representative Vinny DeMacedo of Plymouth

The Great Places initiative celebrates what is unique about the Commonwealth of  Massachusetts, its communities, and its people. It aims to boost visitation to Massachusetts as well as give local residents the opportunity to visit known and unknown historic sites, cultural venues, and natural landscapes.
The program is administered through a partnership of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development; the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism and its regional tourism councils; and the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC).

ADAMS
Mount Greylock State Reservation
Saint Stanislaus Kostka Church
Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum
The Quaker Meeting House
Veterans Memorial Tower

ALFORD
Knox Trail

BECKET
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
Upper Goose Pond

CHESIRE
Pioneer Monument at Stafford Hill

CLARKSBURG
Clarksburg State Park
Hairpin Turn Overlook on Route 2

DALTON
Crane Museum of Papermaking
Wahconah Falls State Park

EGREMONT
Catamount Ski

FLORIDA
The Zoar Gap
Elk Memorial Sculpted by Eli Harvey
Hoosac Tunnel

GREAT BARRINGTON
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Monument Mountain
Ski Butternut

HANCOCK
Ioka Valley Farm
Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort

HINDSDALE
Bas Ridge Golf Course

LANESBOROUGH
Constitution Hill

LEE
Main Street
Museum of Animation, Special Effects and Art
October Mountain State Park
Prime Outlets

LENOX
Berkshire Scenic Railway
Cranwell Resort Spa & Golf Club
Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio
Kennedy Park
Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary
Shakespeare and Company
Tanglewood
The Mount
Ventfort Hall

MONTEREY
Beartown State Forest
Berkshire Fish Hatchery
Bidwell House Museum
Bluff Head
Lake Garfield

MOUNT WASHINGTON
Bash Bish Falls

NEW ASHFORD
First women voter in US ballot box@Town Hall

NEW MARLBOROUGH
Lower Carroll Mill
The Buggy Whip Factory
The Meeting House
Thousand Acre Swamp

NORTH ADAMS
A Chapel For Humanity
Elf Parlor
Jack’s Hot Dog Stand
MASS MoCA
Natural Bridge
North Adams Library
North Adams Museum of History and Science
The Porches Inn
Western Gateway Heritage State Park
Windsor Lake

OTIS
Spectacle Pond

PERU
Middlefield State Forest

PITTSFIELD
Arrowhead, Home of Herman Melville
Barrington Stage Company
The Berkshire Museum
The Colonial Theater
Hancock Shaker Village

RICHMOND
Hilltop Orchards Richmond

SANDISFIELD
Sandisfield State Forest
Spectacle Pond

SAVOY
Tannery Falls in the Savoy Mountain State Forest

SHEFFIELD
Bartholomew’s Cobble

STOCKBRIDGE
Berkshire Botanical Garden
Berkshire Theatre Festival
Chesterwood
Ice Glen Trail
Main Street
The Mission House
National Shrine of The Divine Mercy on Eden Hill
Norman Rockwell Museum
The Red Lion Inn

TYRINGHAM
Tyringham Cobble

WASHINGTON
Historic District

WEST STOCKBRIDGE
Baldwin Extracts

WILLIAMSTOWN
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
Field Farm
Spring Street
The Orchards Hotel
Williams College Art Museum
Williams Inn

WINDSOR
Notchview Reservation
Windsor Jambs

Click here to read the Berkshire Eagle!

Differences remain between the House and Senate versions of the bill that must be reconciled through a conference committee before it goes to the Governor for his approval. The legislative session ends July 31.

The House bill would establish a program to create state-sponsored cultural districts, distinctive areas of a community in which a high concentration of cultural facilities and programs serve as an anchor for activity and commerce. The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) would manage the program and set guidelines with input from the public and other state agencies.

The cultural districts provision was spearheaded by Rep. John Keenan of Salem, House Chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts, and Cultural Development, with support from Reps. Steve Walsh of Lynn, Ann-Margaret Ferrante of Gloucester, and Kay Khan and Ruth Balser of Newton. It had the backing of House Economic Development Committee Chair Brian Dempsey of Haverhill and Speaker Robert DeLeo of Winthrop. A similar measure filed by Senator Stan Rosenberg of Amherst passed the Senate earlier this spring.

The House bill would also establish a commission to study how schools foster student creativity. Entitled the Creative Challenge Index, the measure would set up a commission to develop an index that would “rate every public school in the Commonwealth on teaching, encouraging, and fostering creativity in students.” The MCC would have a seat on the commission along with representatives from organizations involved in education, business, advocacy, and public policy.

That provision was spearheaded by Rep. Martha Walz of Boston, House Chair of the Joint Committee on Education, and cosponsored by Reps. Keenan, Walsh, and Dan Bosley of North Adams. The Creative Challenge Index has been a central advocacy goal of the Mass. Advocates for Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH) and Arts|Learning.

“This is great news,” said MCC Executive Director Anita Walker. “The strong support shown for these measures demonstrates that the Legislature truly views arts and culture as key to the state’s economic recovery.

“Cultural districts will give cities and towns new tools to expand participation in cultural activities, revitalize commercial districts, and draw new visitors to arts venues. And the creative challenge index has the potential to reinforce the importance of arts education and creative learning in our schools.”

The budget reduces state support for arts and culture by $600,000 for fiscal year 2011, which began on July 1. The Governor vetoed $151,000 in contingency funding that would have been available to MCC and its grant programs only if the state is reimbursed by the federal government for Medicaid expenses. In all the Governor vetoed $457 million in this contingency spending across state government. The Legislature may choose to override those vetoes.

“Funding cuts are never good news, especially at a time when many of our nonprofit cultural organizations, schools, and communities are still feeling the effects of the recession,” said Anita Walker, MCC Executive Director. “Nevertheless, state government faced tremendous financial pressure this year, and there were very few public programs that were spared cutbacks.

“On behalf of the MCC and its Board, I extend our thanks to the many cultural leaders, artists, educators, and individual citizens who advocated on our behalf during the budget debate.”

State support for arts and culture is less than half of levels reached a decade ago. The MCC is working with the Boston Foundation, the Mass. Advocates for Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH), and a coalition of cultural leaders from across the state, to build a strong advocacy network to reverse these cuts and position the cultural sector for greater support in future years.

Click here to learn more about the MCC.

Click here to visit the Governor’s official website and learn more about the new state budget.

Next week, the House will consider HB 4820, an economic-development bill that would merge HEFA into MassDevelopment on October 1, 2010 and create a single agency to issue tax-exempt bonds for nonprofits in Massachusetts.

The bill would bring together in one agency the ability of MassDevelopment and HEFA to leverage private dollars to promote economic growth in the Commonwealth. It would save money while maintaining access to low-cost financing for nonprofits across the Commonwealth. During the last three fiscal years, MassDevelopment issued 269 bonds totaling $5.2 billion in par amount. Of these, 180 tallying more than $4.5 billion were for nonprofits. HEFA issued 122 bonds tallying more than $8 billion with three universities representing nearly $3 billion of the HEFA issues. No public money is put at risk, but the public benefits from jobs and economic activity generated by the projects while you save on interest rates.

Another plus: the fees MassDevelopment earns issuing bonds allow us to reinvest in the Commonwealth and its families by making loans and grants to area businesses and non-profits; helping cities and towns revitalize neighborhoods; and redeveloping blighted surplus state and federal properties. In the past three years, we made 183 loans and loan guarantees to small businesses and nonprofits totaling more than $120 million, of which more than $32 million was for small nonprofits. In the first six months of FY10, we made $22 million in loans to Massachusetts businesses, both for-profit and not-for-profit. At a time when banks had tightened credit, MassDevelopment continued to make loans.

Since 1998 when the Legislature created MassDevelopment by merging the Massachusetts Industrial Finance Agency and the Government Land Bank, MassDevelopment has served both for-profit and nonprofit organizations and in doing so saved them billions in borrowing costs. Merging MassDevelopment and HEFA will eliminate duplication of services, result in economies of scale, and provide even greater returns to the employers and people of Massachusetts.

I ask that you call your representatives in the House to support MassDevelopment. Visit www.mass.gov/legis/city_town.htm for a list of legislators by municipality.

Please call me at 617.330.2056, if you have any questions. Nonprofits are a key component of our economy. We value the work you do and pledge to redouble our efforts to help you expand and innovate by delivering efficient services to keep your borrowing costs low. Thank you for supporting MassDevelopment. I look forward to continuing our work with you to promote economic development in Massachusetts.

These measures differ in some ways from expanded gambling legislation passed by the state House of Representatives earlier this spring. The full Senate is scheduled to debate the bill, Senate 2495, starting Wednesday. The final Senate bill must then be reconciled with the House version through a conference committee, then sent to the Governor, who can sign or veto it before the legislative session ends at the end of July.

Specifically, the Senate Ways & Means proposal would:

• Establish a cultural mitigation fund that could generate an estimated $6 million and $10 million annually, beginning in several years when casinos are officially licensed and operating. That represents 2% of the proposed tax on gross gaming revenues. Other mitigation funds are designated for other purposes, including gambling addiction treatment and other community needs. The amount set aside for the cultural sector is roughly twice that proposed in the House bill.

• Ensure that performances in casino entertainment venues with more than 1,000 seats be reviewed and approved by the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC).

• Require casino operators to document the impact their facilities would have on local cultural organizations, communities, and other stakeholders. The legislation establishes a subcommittee on cultural facilities as part of a broader advisory board that would recommend regulations to mitigate casinos’ impact on nonprofit performing arts centers.

The MCC has worked closely with a group of advocates from nonprofit performing arts centers across the state to ensure that those centers are protected from unfair competition from casino entertainment, and that the state devote a portion of future revenues from casinos to support the nonprofit cultural sector.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Stan Rosenberg of Amherst was among the chief architects of the bill released today, and has been vocal in his support for arts and culture during this debate. Other leading voices on behalf of the cultural sector included Senate Ways & Means Chair Steven Panagiotakos of Lowell, whose district includes the Lowell Memorial Auditorium; Assistant Vice Chair Harriette Chandler of Worcester, where the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts is located; and Senator Karen Spilka of Framingham, Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies.

Click here to learn more about the MCC.

The Senate’s fiscal year 2011 budget is slightly higher than the $9.1 million proposed by the House of Representatives in the budget it passed last month. Still, it would represent a cut of $443,000, or 4.6 percent, from MCC’s current budget.

The House and Senate must now agree on a spending plan before sending it back to the Governor for final approval. The new fiscal year begins July 1.

The budget passed after an amendment filed by Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz of Boston to maintain level funding for MCC fell short of the votes needed to pass. Chang-Díaz is Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts, and Cultural Development. Her amendment was cosponsored by Senators Benjamin Downing of Pittsfield, Jack Hart of Boston, Patricia Jehlen of Somerville, Michael Moore of Millbury, and Robert O’Leary of Barnstable.

“Senator Chang-Díaz and our amendment co-sponsors deserve the thanks of the cultural community for advocating on our behalf during another very difficult year for state finances,” said Anita Walker, MCC Executive Director. “Now we will work to ensure that the budget conferees understand the value of arts and cultural funding to the health and vitality of our state.”

State funding for arts and culture through MCC was cut nearly 25 percent last year, and is half its level of a decade ago. Restoring this funding and reinvesting in the Mass. Cultural Facilities Fund are the MCC’s top priorities.

Click here to learn more about the MCC.

Over 30 LCC represenatives from the twenty plus LCC’s of Berkshire County, came out to share their work, learn more about the work of Berkshire Creative, and to meet their cultural council colleagues.

The event was kicked off by Massachusetts Cultural Council Executive Director, Anita Walker, Sen. Benjamin Downing and State Representative Smitty Pignatelli, and Berkshire Creative Director, Helena Fruscio. The speaking portion was followed by an open forum to discuss each LCC’s work, mission, and priorities.

The Massachusetts Local Cultural Council (LCC) Program supports “thousands of community-based projects in the arts, humanities, and sciences annually. It “is the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation,” with a network of 329 councils, “administered by 2,400 municipally appointed volunteers,” serving “all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns.”

“Each year, local councils award more than $2 million in grants to more than 5,000 cultural programs statewide. These include school field trips, afterschool programs, concerts, festivals, lectures, theater, dance, music, and film. LCC projects take place in schools, community centers, libraries, elder care facilities, town halls, parks, and wherever communities come together.”

Click here to learn more about your Local Cultural Council!