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Trump’s Budget Again Proposes Elimination of Public TV, Arts Funding

Y2kTheNewOldies

Y2kTheNewOldies

Walk of Fame Participant
http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/trump-budget-eliminates-pbs-nea-funding-1202695205/

Interesting how these debates come up though.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s newly unveiled 2019 budget again proposes the elimination of funding for the three major entities that award federal funding for public broadcasting and the arts: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The $4.4 trillion budget proposal is not much of a surprise to public TV and arts advocates, as Trump’s 2018 budget also called for zeroing out such funding. Instead, funding survived, which is a testament to just how much of a wish-list the White House budget really is, as opposed to something that will actually gain traction on Capitol Hill.

The rationale that the White House makes for eliminating the federal funding is that the outlay can be made up for by private donations and grants at the state level.

“CPB funding comprises about 15% of the total amount spent on public broadcasting, with the remainder coming from non-federal sources, with many large stations raising an even greater share,” the budget states. “This private fundraising has proven durable, negating the need for continued federal subsidies.

“Services such as PBS and NPR, which receive funding from CPB, could make up the shortfall by increasing revenues from corporate sponsors, foundations, and members. In addition, alternatives to PBS and NPR programming have grown substantially since CPB was first established in 1967, greatly reducing the need for publicly-funded programming options,” the budget reads.

CPB has received about $445 million in federal funding in recent years.

“Public broadcasting has earned bipartisan congressional support over the years thanks to the value we provide to taxpayers,” PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger said in a statement.

She said the network and its 350 member stations and local supporters “will continue to remind leaders in Washington of the significant benefits the public receives in return for federal funding, a modest investment of about $1.35 per citizen per year.”

The NEA and NEH have each received about $150 million in federal funding, but they too have survived. In fact, their budgets increased slightly last year as Congress has funded the government through a series of short-term continuing resolutions.

Dana Gioia, who chaired the NEA under President George W. Bush, predicted several weeks ago that the arts funding would remain safe this year.
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Once again, the president's budget will be treated the same way it's been treated for the past 20 years. DOA.

A large number of the country's public broadcasting stations are owned by state governments. Many of them are run by Republican governors. They don't agree with the White House on this issue.

On this same day, the president has come up with an infrastructure plan that seeks support from those very same state governments. You don't take away money from someone, and then ask them for money at the same time. Just bad politics.
 
PBS can make it on it's own without government funding they can get Retrans money like Sinclair's, Nexstar's, Scripps etc. And those that want to donate to PBS be my guess as well PBS doesn't need tax dollars just like NPR as well.
 
Megatron said:
PBS can make it on it's own without government funding they can get Retrans money like Sinclair's, Nexstar's, Scripps etc. And those that want to donate to PBS be my guess as well PBS doesn't need tax dollars just like NPR as well.
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PBS doesn't in fact own any TV stations. None. PBS is not like Sinclair, Nexstar, etc. So explain to me how they can get retrains money if they don't in fact own TV stations.

And what about public radio stations?

BTW, the public is not allowed to donate money to PBS.

Any more ideas?
 
The big-market PBS stations (WTTW/WNET/KCTS/KQED/etc.) will stay on even with a deep government cut - they'd still be able to get plenty of $$$ from their pledge drives and members. But this could cause problems for smaller statewide or standalone stations - Montana PBS, SDPB, secondary PBS stations like KBTC and KVCR, etc. Even the PBS CEO, Paula Kerger, said that 'a number of our stations will [go away]', 'there's no Plan B' in a TV critics' meeting back in late July 2017.
Same thing goes with NPR stations. I don't expect KJZZ, WNYC, KQED or KUOW to go away any time soon. But what about those in small towns, like the Alaska NPR's which in some cases, are the only radio station in the town? The big shots in DC don't understand that some of these NPR stations are the only lifeline for news, local weather and information for small communities.
I'm hoping the funding can still continue - even if we all have to petition for that!
 
This is good news, and eliminating the CPB will not mean the end of all PBS stations. This could be the year that CPB finally goes away. Those that the listeners and watchers of the stations choose to support will endure and those that don't likely weren't serving enough people to justify a subsidy in any case. Could free up spectrum for broadcasting that people will actually utilize!
 
crainbebo said:
The big-market PBS stations (WTTW/WNET/KCTS/KQED/etc.) will stay on even with a deep government cut - they'd still be able to get plenty of $$$ from their pledge drives and members. But this could cause problems for smaller statewide or standalone stations - Montana PBS, SDPB, secondary PBS stations like KBTC and KVCR, etc. Even the PBS CEO, Paula Kerger, said that 'a number of our stations will [go away]', 'there's no Plan B' in a TV critics' meeting back in late July 2017.
Same thing goes with NPR stations. I don't expect KJZZ, WNYC, KQED or KUOW to go away any time soon. But what about those in small towns, like the Alaska NPR's which in some cases, are the only radio station in the town? The big shots in DC don't understand that some of these NPR stations are the only lifeline for news, local weather and information for small communities.
I'm hoping the funding can still continue - even if we all have to petition for that!
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CPB funding is used to produce programming carried on PBS/NPR stations. I'm not sure why the Republicans, let alone the current administration has spotlighted public broadcasting or CPB. Compared with other government-funded things, the amount spent on public broadcasting is a rounding error.
 
umfan said:
Those that the listeners and watchers of the stations choose to support will endure and those that don't likely weren't serving enough people to justify a subsidy in any case. Could free up spectrum for broadcasting that people will actually utilize!
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Lots of people utilize public broadcasting, particularly in red states. In fact, there are parts of certain very red states (such as Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) where the public station is the ONLY media available. The Republican governors, particularly those in rural states, need this federal appropriation, and they have made that known to Congress. State-owned public broadcasting authorities are very powerful in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ohio, which are battleground states for Republicans. They know if they vote against this funding, it could cost them those states, and ultimately their majority.
 
Nothing will stop these stations from enduring, if those that use them are willing to support them. Might actually make the stations add programming that their listeners actually want. I'm hopeful the CPB is on the way to the trash heap where it belongs.
 
umfan said:
Nothing will stop these stations from enduring, if those that use them are willing to support them. Might actually make the stations add programming that their listeners actually want. I'm hopeful the CPB is on the way to the trash heap where it belongs.
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Once again, most of these stations are owned by state broadcasting authorities, and most of those governors are Republicans. If you have an issue with these stations, your complaint should be with the states. Public broadcasting isn't intended to compete with commercial broadcasting, but rather provide services the commercial stations ignore for ratings and revenue reasons. This has always been the purpose of public broadcasting going back 50 years, and it's always received bipartisan support. The only people opposed are a small minority of tea party people, who simply don't have the votes to force their ideology on the majority. That's the case here.
 
Once again, I could care less about the stations, only their stream of taxpayer provided funding. Further, since many of the state owned colleges who really own these assets were able to sell the station spectrum in the last auction, at a profit, without returning anything to their benefactors, the need for this subsidy is clearly past, if it was ever justified at all. The end is near for CPB and the model of so-called public broadcasting. The change is long overdue and besides those who are employed at the stations, the impact will hardly be felt.
 
umfan said:
Further, since many of the state owned colleges who really own these assets were able to sell the station spectrum in the last auction, at a profit,
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That's really only for TV stations, and only one small college in Florida has done it. The federal funding for that program is in far more doubt than CPB funding. In many states, the stations are owned by public broadcasting authorities, not colleges. That's the case in South Carolina, where the current budget director worked most recently. It's a department that reports to the governor, not the department of education. So it's a bit higher up than what you're talking about.

umfan said:
The change is long overdue and besides those who are employed at the stations, the impact will hardly be felt.
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Once again, the proper course is repeal. Otherwise, Congress will continue to fund, as they have for 50 years. It's already funded to the next election.
 
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By the way, as I predicted, CPB funding was extended under the new omnibus spending bill passed by the House & Senate last night.

The amount is $445 million and will continue through 2020. You can read it on page 1020 of the bill.
 
TheBigA said:
By the way, as I predicted, CPB funding was extended under the new omnibus spending bill passed by the House & Senate last night.

The amount is $445 million and will continue through 2020. You can read it on page 1020 of the bill.
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Yes, you are correct.

Trump has proven to be all hat and no cattle on his promises to rein-in ANY aspect of Federal spending.

$19 trillion and counting.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Yes, you are correct.

Trump has proven to be all hat and no cattle on his promises to rein-in ANY aspect of Federal spending.
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Then again, that's why he threatened to veto the omnibus bill. He also said this is the last time he will sign such a bill. We'll see. This one funds the government until September. However, the CPB funding is covered until 2020.
 
With regards to "The Arts" part of the OP (NEA & NEH)

Once again, federal funding for the arts has been spared.

The $1.3 trillion budget signed Friday by President Donald Trump continues support for the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and other agencies he sought to eliminate.

The NEH and NEA each will receive $3 million increases, to just under $153 million per agency. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is getting a $9 million increase, to $240 million.
 
TheBigA said:
With regards to "The Arts" part of the OP (NEA & NEH)

Once again, federal funding for the arts has been spared.

The $1.3 trillion budget signed Friday by President Donald Trump continues support for the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and other agencies he sought to eliminate.

The NEH and NEA each will receive $3 million increases, to just under $153 million per agency. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is getting a $9 million increase, to $240 million.
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I have several conservative friends and they all appreciate the arts. I doubt Trump will get his way on the elimination of the NEA and NEH solely on the strength of his personal distaste for culture. He may have some true believers in the House who share his attitude, but it's likely that they are outnumbered by the conventional conservative Republicans who don't want to see drama, literature, music and art in America take a major hit.
 
TheBigA said:
Then again, that's why he threatened to veto the omnibus bill. He also said this is the last time he will sign such a bill. We'll see.
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I don't think he was referring at all to deficits and debt - or NEA/CPB funding either, for that matter. @realDonaldTrump wrote on Twitter about the bill lacking a DACA fix, and not containing any Pesos for The Wall.
 
First, Trump can exaggerate his abilities to his base all he wants. But at the end of the day, he still can't beat Congress. That's just the rules, per Constitution. They don't change on his or anyone's whims.

Second, if you need a reason for public radio's existence, consider Alaska. Most radio in this very red state is public and will be until Entercom sets up clusters in extremely remote places like Barrow, Kotzebue and Nome. Which is never (tiny populations with few businesses that can't afford $4,000 for a 30 second spot.) Commercial radio of any kind is impossible in these places. But people live here and they have a right to a radio service.

Public radio is vital to these areas because there would be no radio at all beyond religious satcasters that do not provide news and information to these areas. The internet is extremely limited and often not reliably available outside of the bigger Alaskan cities.
 
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