Dear Editor,
In today’s Examiner Alderman Ball called for increased State Government support for the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery and it comes at an interesting time.
Nationally, public funding for cultural institutions is under more intense scrutiny than it has been for decades. State governments elsewhere are looking to, and already have, drastically cut that class of funding rather than increased it.
It was once assumed that there was an automatic guarantee of a cultural dividend that cultural funding was bound to deliver.
It is no longer so simple and past rationales no longer seem to cut it against amplified accountability and sustainability requirements.
There may well be a good case for increasing funding to cultural institutions. However, more and more it will need to be backed up by very good evidence of sustainability and service delivery.
Tasmania is progressively more dependent upon cultural tourism. Likewise, when it comes to the funding of, rather government investment in, cultural institutions there will be increased demands for outcome delivery.
What seems to be needed here is some old-fashioned inside-the-box rationalism backed up by some outside-the-box innovation.
Ray Norman
Trevallyn
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“Alderman wants an increase in funding Feb. 26, 2013, 1 a.m.
LAUNCESTON Deputy Mayor Jeremy Ball wants the state government to contribute an equal financial share to the council for upkeep of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.
He said the government should be asked to pitch in more than its $1.3 million contribution, given the council's annual $4.2 million contribution would drop by $800,000 over the next five years.
Alderman Ball suggested the council lobbied all three political parties for greater financial assistance leading into the next state election.
The funding agreement will end in June 30, 2014.
Alderman Ball said it was unreasonable that Launceston's 28,000 ratepayers had to carry the weight when the whole Northern region benefited from the facility.”
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2 comments:
Ald Ball needs to learn that taxation already allows for others to use our various facilities. Does Ald Ball want to pay an impost for services provided by the Midlands Council that he benefits from?
Ald Ball needs to focus on delivering value, rather than just trying to penalise ratepayers with higher expenses.
This citys aldermen are a bit much. First they create a problem by overspending as if they were a national government and when it goes bad they want government to bail them out of the poo they put ratepayers in.
Sometime soon this lot needs to get real.
Its a very good thing that we are looking at compulsory voting for local government. This way the nonperformers and grandstanders might just get kicked out and sent packing.
More state government money is in fact more ratepayers money and if its not delivering more, and with the museum it has not, why spend it?
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