Pennsylvania Arts Community To Burden Extended Taxes

Arts communities throughout Pennsylvania are outraged today, as the state extended a sales tax applying to cultural performances and venues - including museums - in a budget deal reached late on Friday, the Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting.

Writes Steven Salisbury in the paper, "We heard nothing about this until late last night," Peggy Amsterdam, head of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, said yesterday. "It must have been a very last-minute deal. Not only will it hit the arts organizations, but it will make it harder for people to pay."

Reportedly, the deal allots for an arts institution fund into which a ticket-tax revenue will collect. This tax fund will support institutions that have been previously subsidized by the general fund, such as museums, theaters, and zoos.

It is unclear as to whether the new cultural sales tax will flow back to venues.  This additional tax comes as an especially large blow after arts administrators report that thier financial support from the state had been reduced drastically recently.  With this new tax imposed on audiences and visitors to arts and cultural events, arts officials fear that it will reduce public desire to attend at all, further decreasing revenue.  

Movies and sproting events are exempt from this new tax.

To access the full article from the Philadelphia Inquier, click here.