From the San Diego Union Tribune:<P><BR><B>Sacramento must do more for arts funding</B><P>June 5, 2001 <P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The arts community in San Diego and other cities that have been shortchanged by state funding formulas hoped this year would be different. The California Arts Council opened up its grant procedures so that smaller organizations could compete fairly for money. And Gov. Gray Davis promised to spend more so that public funding for culture wouldn't continue to be such an embarrassment in California.<P>But, apparently, the Legislature doesn't appreciate the importance of arts and culture in California, except when it comes to projects in politically powerful areas. This spring, the Assembly and Senate Budget committees cut out all additional arts funding proposed by Davis -- and that wasn't very much to begin with.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/tue/opinion/news_1ed5arts.html" TARGET=_blank><B>MORE...</B></A><P><p>[This message has been edited by Basheva (edited June 05, 2001).]

Yeah... not good. More than ever I believe many California dance companies are going into next season with major variances in their budgets.