Funding The State’s Creative Economy Strategic Plan
Last Thursday, I drove up to Sacramento to represent SBMT at the presentation of the 2026 Creative Economy Strategic Plan with Senators Ben Allen and Susan Rubio. The California Joint Committee of the Arts is requesting $50 million for the California Arts Council to expand local assistance grants that empower communities through the arts and $40 million for the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund (PAEPF) to ensure fair pay across the creative workforce.
California’s economy is increasingly powered by innovation and creativity. Yet the artists, educators, performers, and nonprofit organizations that fuel that creativity are too often treated as optional rather than essential.
On the same day of the hearing, the Governor’s revised 2026-27 budget was announced. There was no allocation for either of the two arts budget asks. This was disheartening as the revised 2026-27 budget eliminates projected deficits, reflecting a $16.8 billion increase in revenue projections. Instead of a shortfall, the state projects a surplus of $4.5 billion for 2026-27 and $2.1 billion for 2027-28. This surplus was primarily fueled by surging income from the AI boom and corporate tax revenues. It seems only right that a small portion of this prosperity be reinvested in the creative people and arts institutions that make California worth living in.
At the same time California is debating whether to invest in its creative future, the federal government has proposed to divest. The President’s 2027 Budget Request to Congress proposes eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Local arts organizations are essential civic infrastructure. They drive economic activity, create connection and empathy, strengthen local culture, and contribute to the personal well-being of our communities.
There is still time to act before the California budget is finalized:
- Actor’s Equity has created a One-Click Letter of Support for the PAEPF to ask your legislators to support arts funding
- Americans for the Arts has an easy way to reach out to Members of Congress to ask them to preserve NEA and NEH funding
- Budget committee hearings and public comment opportunities in support of arts and culture funding will continue over the next few weeks
- Educate yourself and read the California’s Future is Creative strategic plan
California became an economic and cultural powerhouse not simply because we invested in technology, but because we invested in imagination, storytelling, innovation, and people.
The arts are not separate from California’s future. They are part of how we educate our children, strengthen our communities, grow local economies, and remind ourselves what it means to be human.
If we believe creativity drives California forward, then now is the time to support the artists and organizations that make that creativity possible.
— Michael Paul Hirsch, Executive Director
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