It is great that some discussion about this is happening here, and
good research behind the issues is critical in order to make a good
informed decision. Maybe I can clarify things.

First off, the Cuyahoga County Cultural Leadership Taskforce met
every two weeks from late August to Early December to try to figure
out a fair way to split public Art Funding, if it ever was to come to
fruition. Formed by County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, headed
by CPAC's Tom Shorgl, and made up of representatives of the various
art organizations, foundations, and even individual artists they
hammered out a plan. Though the literary sector was not represented,
every meeting was public and an opportunity for the public to speak
was given.

The only consistant public attendant was Cool Cleveland's Thomas
Mulready, who ably expressed the opinions gleaned from pre-meetings
by the Creative Cleveland Coalition
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CreativeClevelandCoalition. The
CoolCleveland newsletter covered and announced meetings, if you want
to go over the old archives. I attended about half the meetings, so
you could say you were represented if you want to include me as a
member of the literary arts. (In which case you never read any of my
stuff) Here is the link to the taskforce's minutes and the final
report.
http://www.supportartsandculture.org/abouttheissue/cultural.html
Read it decide if it is fair, mind you the formula is a bit tough to
comprehend. I would start looking for a fiscal agent, if you are not
a nonprofit.

Second, I have spoken to two of the three commisioners and I am
convinced that the split in revenues will be as advertised. This is
a bit of a political football in that the State will not allow a levy
purely for the arts, so it had to be tied to economic development.
Also the econ dev portion is not just pork.

In the industry group I'm in, I constantly hear of the lack of public
help for their small businesses. WE are not talking about Athersys
mega-demands, we are talking about spending to train their employees
to stay current, dealing with brownfield problems they inherited,
loans to expand their delivery fleet. These are not megadollars
here. Most is just to help existing businesses get by the rough
time, or to keep them here when they are at a transition point to
expand (it's easy to move at that tipping point). The money will
translate to jobs, keeping them and creating them.

Third point I want to make is that the time to really influence the
direction of the government is not when a ballot comes up. That is
when you get to say yea or nay, yes or no, do or don't. But to
actually help point the direction is way early. Read the fine print
in the PD, or CoolCleveland is good at pointing out key meetings.
Talk to your elected officials when they come out of their offices.
Go to town and public meetings, express yourself, propose
alternatives. The opportunities for that in issue 31 were there.
Some of us took hold of the opportunity and our influence is apparent.

Hope the links help in your decision.

Steve Goldberg