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February 18, 2011 in City
Lawmakers working on funding options for MAC
OLYMPIA – The Washington Legislature may find a way to keep the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and the state museum in Tacoma open, despite Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposal to close public access to save money.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown said Thursday a coalition of Spokane and Tacoma legislators is working on a strategy to reduce state support over time, but provide a “bridge” of state money while the museums look for financial support elsewhere.
For the MAC, Brown said, a possible source of funding would be the region’s tribes because the museum has an extensive collection of Native American artifacts.
Gregoire’s proposed budget for 2011-’13 cuts state support for the MAC and the State Historical Museum in Tacoma by some $3.3 million, severely reducing staff. It would leave them with skeleton staffs to preserve their collections but unable to be open to the public.
Officials for both museums told a House committee last month that they would essentially cease to exist if the governor’s plan stays in the budget that the Legislature will rewrite and adopt later this spring.
It wouldn’t be the first time Gregoire proposed changes for the two museums and the Legislature disposed of them. In 2008, the governor proposed merging the Washington State Historical Society, which operates the Tacoma museum, and the Eastern Washington State Historical Society, which operates the MAC; Brown blocked its introduction in the Senate, and it died.
A merger remains unlikely, Brown said. The two societies serve different areas and seem to work better as separate entities, she said.
Supermajority for taxes unconstitutional, judge rules 
hawken on February 18 at 8:08 a.m.
There should be “no bridge.” If the museums are so valuable to the citizens, there will be a flood of private funding coming in.
Actually, by closing the museums two things can be accomplished:
1- Fewer tax dollars out the window.
2- A more urgent need to generate private funding after they close.
Continuing tax payer substantives will only hamper private funding.
So, what if they do close for a few months or a year? Will Seattle fall into the pacific ocean?
Scoutster on February 18 at 8:21 a.m.
Hawken..
You have obviously carefully researched this issue.
What’s are “substantives”?
A two or three year transition makes sense. It is poor stewardship of public funding to close a public asset of such value without any planning. And it wouldn’t be closed for a few months. You don’t just close and reopen a museum as if it’s a soda shop.
Talk about waste!
DickAdams on February 18 at 8:23 a.m.
Just why, do voters continue to reelect Lisa Brown? Brown is addicted to spending taxpayers money along with the rest of the liberal spendthrifts.
justanothervoice on February 18 at 8:50 a.m.
You say fewer tax dollars out the window i say more tax dollars they find to spend somewere else on something that probably doesnt even mattter much less exist. Most likely another raise for “all the work” they do for us right?
hawken on February 18 at 9:05 a.m.
My typo Scoutster…. “subsidies”
Coffee on February 18 at 9:12 a.m.
Scoutster.. You are a cruel and heartless person. You know that the rich and well educated are the biggest users of Museums.
You want to keep using money to keep them open that should be used to provide food and medical services to the poor and undereducated citizens of this state such as myself. How cruel is that.
When you go to bed tonight in your safe and comfortable home tonight I will be curling up around my begging bowl and it is all your fault.
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on February 18 at 10:21 a.m.
Coffee - it’s partly my fault too. I don’t feel bad. You don’t have to curl up around your begging bowl, though — you can go buy some booze & cigarettes while enjoying a steak dinner at a strip club, courtesy of your EBT card.
soccermomsusie on February 18 at 11:04 a.m.
I can look at antiquities on my computer. That way I don’t have to rub elbows with museum riffraff. Myst was my favorite online museum.
If everything is so valuable in the MAC, why not sell it all off to keep the museum open? It doesn’t matter, ever since Dennis Hession left and took the mummy exhibit with him, attendance has fallen.
Show me a major city with any kind of museum. There just aren’t any. Museums are so yesterday.
HEAR OUR VOICE!!!!!
johnclarke on February 18 at 11:40 a.m.
The governor put a proposal on the table to keep the museum open, and Lisa Brown killed it.