Mayor Bill Foster Lowering Financial Support For The Arts

Mayor Bill Foster hired a $50,000 consultant to try to find ways to fund the arts in St Petersburg since he will be reducing the amount that the city directly funds arts organizations in the city. Billed as a way to "find sustainable funding sources" for arts organizations, it appears as if it is really being used as an excuse for Mayor Foster to cut arts funding in the city in order to balance his budget without having to cut things like the $200,000 administrator vehicle subsidies that he refused to cut from the last budget. Read the editorial here at the St Petersburg Tampa Bay Times.