The art community in Missouri is facing uncertainty over a potential $5.5 million cut to general revenue funds for the Missouri Arts Council in the 2027 fiscal year.
The Missouri Arts Council is a state-funded agency that provides grants and other financial support to arts organizations in all 163 Missouri House districts. Many festivals, art education programs and community performances rely on funding from the Missouri Arts Council.
“We’re not just in the large communities or in places that have the most arts, we make sure the arts benefit every community, and that is why 90% of our budget goes back to the communities,” Missouri Arts Council Executive Director Michael Donovan said.
Not only do these grants fund the arts, but Donovan said they also help keep many programs affordable at little to no cost. Nonprofit arts and culture brought in $1.7 billion to the Missouri economy, according to a 2022 study by The Americans for the Arts.
The arts council is funded through the Missouri Arts Council Trust Fund. Each year, the General Assembly transfers money from general revenue into the fund and approves a spending amount for the arts council on that money.
For fiscal year 2027, Gov. Mike Kehoe proposed reducing the amount of money transferred into the trust fund to $6.4 million compared to last year’s $12.7 million. Kehoe’s proposed budget would have kept the arts council’s spending limit at $10.1 million, the same as in fiscal year 2026. In committee, the House bumped the spending limit to $13.3 million and the amount transferred into the trust fund to $7.2 million.
According to end of April fund reports from the Office of Missouri State Treasurer, the trust fund currently sits at $12.1 million.
The general revenue transferred into the trust fund comes from the Nonresident Athletes and Entertainers Tax. This is a 2% withholding tax on compensation exceeding $300 for out-of-state artists and athletes performing in Missouri. The state estimates how much money is expected for the year and the Missouri Arts Council is supposed to receive 60% of it.
Although state statute says the money should be transferred to certain agencies, the money first goes into the state’s general revenue and transfers must be approved by lawmakers.
In fiscal year 2025, the most recent year with full annual reports, the estimated total revenue from the tax was $40.9 million, but the Missouri Arts Council only saw $15.6 million transferred to the trust fund of the $24.5 million it was due to see.
“Everything that (state-funded programs) do is subject to appropriation and is at the discretion of the members of the budget committee and then the members of the body at large,” said Rep. Betsy Fogle, D-Springfield, the ranking minority member on the House Budget Committee.
On a national level, the arts aren’t seeing as significant of cuts as many states are, according to Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization for the advancement of arts and arts education.
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that provides grants to state arts agencies. The NEA is tentatively receiving the same $207 million in 2027 as it has in the past few years. This year, it is hoping for an inflationary increase to $213 million.
“We’ve seen some real significant cuts in state legislative funding for arts agencies for a myriad of reasons, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act really cut some other state-level funding, such as Medicaid and SNAP. So, you’re seeing states cutting arts programs because they need to provide for some of those other essential needs,” said Tooshar Swain, director of Public Policy for Americans for the Arts.
The Americans for the Arts focuses on advocacy, research and education for the arts. They provide information sharing and collaborate with other nonprofit organizations, such as the National Association of State Arts Assemblies.
“We work very closely with state advocacy groups,” Swain said. “We have a state advocacy connection in all 50 states and we’re proud of that.”
The NEA, on the other hand, works to provide funding by allotting 40% of its entire budget to state arts agencies, including the Missouri Arts Council.
This year, the Missouri Arts Council isn’t the only state agency facing budget cuts.
This proposed cut to Missouri Arts Council funding is among $600 million in budget cuts originally laid out in Gov. Mike Kehoe’s proposed $54.5 billion budget. The governor has said these budget cuts are in place to address a projected $2 billion revenue shortfall. This decline is due in part to dwindling surplus funds and lower projected revenue resulting from tax cuts passed by the legislature.
“We saw cuts to services that are geared towards taking care of individuals with significant disabilities and allow them to live in their home and be cared for by a loved one,” Fogle said. “I’m hoping they restore some of the funding for individuals accessing developmental waivers for families who have loved ones with developmental disabilities”.
The budget is still subject to change as the House and Senate are currently negotiating the final budget in conference committee ahead of the Friday deadline.