WHAT IS THE CULTURAL EDUCATION ACCOUNT?

The Cultural Education (CE) Account was created in 2002 by Chapter 83 of the Laws of 2002 which also transferred all Office of Cultural Education (OCE) functions previously supported by State General Fund appropriations to this funding source. It provides a major share of the operational funding for the NY State Museum, NY State Archives, NY State Library, and Office of Public Broadcasting and Educational Television and the NY State Summer School of the Arts. Among other purposes, it pays the salary of more than 300 employees, funds the purchase of State Library collections and the research facilities of the State Library and State Archives, and supports public galleries, public programming and education, and scientific and historical research in the State Museum.

The CE Fund receives its revenue from the $15.00 fee collected by the county clerk for recording, entering, indexing, or endorsing a certificate on any instrument in a county or for assigning an index number to actions pending in County or Supreme Court. The counties currently retain $.75 of each CE Account surcharge to defray their collection expenses. This fee has not increased since 2002.

WHY THE CULTURAL EDUCATION ACCOUNT NEEDS YOUR HELP:

The Cultural Education Account balance is fully depleted as a result of the severe decline in revenue and the annual and special transfers of funds to support other State purposes through the State budget process. The current revenue level of the CE Account will barely cover personal services and related costs alone; coupled with critically essential non-personal service spending, the account will likely have a negative cash balance of more than $20 Million by the end of the next fiscal year.

THE PROPOSED SOLUTION:

Assembly Bill A06783 and Senate Bill S3640 proposes to add $7.50 to the current CE Account surcharge of $15.00, to a total of $22.50. The portion of the fee retained by the counties will increase an additional $.25, from $.75 to a total of $1.00. It is estimated that this change will generate approximately $15 Million in additional revenue to the CE Account and $500,000 to counties at present transaction levels.

NYSAAE supports A6783 / S3640 which will provide funding to ensure every student has access to Arts resources in New York State. Review the NYSAAE Unified Advocacy Committee Talking Points for the promotion of Arts Education in NYS.

Make a DONATION in support of NYSAAE's Advocacy Efforts! CLICK HERE

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

Contact your elected representatives
There are a number of options to let your elected representative know that you support A6783 / S3640.

GOOD (Supporter)
e-Mail your representative in the NYS Senate and Assembly. It's as simple as 1-2-3.

1. CLICK HERE to access the pre-drafted letter.

2. Enter your name and mailing address.

3. Click 'Send My Message!'

Your letter will be automatically e-mailed to YOUR representative in Albany!

For your reference here is a the text of the letter:

I am writing today to request your support of Assembly Bill A06783 and Senate Bill S3640, which proposes an increase in the collected fees that support the Cultural Education Account and the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund.

As you likely know, the Cultural Education (CE) Account was created in 2002 by Chapter 83 of the Laws of 2002 which also transferred all Office of Cultural Education (OCE) functions previously supported by State General Fund appropriations to this funding source. It provides a major share of the operational funding for the NY State Museum, NY State Archives, NY State Library, and Office of Public Broadcasting and Educational Television and the NY State Summer School of the Arts.

The CE Fund receives its revenue from the $15.00 fee collected by the county clerk for recording, entering, indexing, or endorsing a certificate on any instrument in a county or for assigning an index number to actions pending in County or Supreme Court. The counties currently retain $.75 of each CE Account surcharge to defray their collection expenses. Please note that this fee has not increased since 2002.

The Cultural Education Account balance is fully depleted as a result of the severe decline in revenue and the annual and special transfers of funds to support other State purposes through the State budget process. The current revenue level of the CE Account will barely cover personal services and related costs alone; coupled with critically essential non-personal service spending, the account will likely have a negative cash balance of more than $20 Million by the end of the next fiscal year.

Assembly Bill A06783 and Senate Bill S3640 proposes to add $7.50 to the current CE Account surcharge of $15.00, to a total of $22.50. The portion of the fee retained by the counties will increase an additional $.25, from $.75 to a total of $1.00. It is estimated that this change will generate approximately $15 Million in additional revenue to the CE Account and $500,000 to counties at present transaction levels.

This increase in revenue is desperately needed to avert a crisis in the support of New York's Cultural Educational resources. Please support Assembly Bill A06783 and Senate Bill S3640, and help assure that all New Yorkers have access to the Arts and Cultural that are provided by the Office of Cultural Education and the Cultural Education Account.

Sincerely,

BETTER (Advocate)

Send the letter above to your representative, but be sure to add your own thoughts and comments - a form letter is good - your own words are even better.

FORWARD this website and message on to other Arts Advocates! Our best hope for success is to reach as many supporters as possible.
http://www.nysaae.org/Cultural_Ed_Fund.htm

BEST (Champion)

Find your elected representatives
Not sure who represents you? or where their district office is?
Click Here
Simply enter your zip code for details on who to contact and how to reach them.

Give them a Call!
Don't underestimate the power of a simple phone call to your representative's office. The more people they hear from, the more they will realize how important this issue is!

Visit their office!
Every Assemblymember and Senator has a district office - delivering the message in person has the greatest impact possible. Contact the district office in advance and arrange a meeting time.

Make a DONATION in support of NYSAAE's Advocacy Efforts! CLICK HERE

More details than you could possibly want for:

In establishing the CE Account, the Legislature followed the funding model of the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF), which since 1989 has supported a program to help local governments manage and preserve records. The fund provides local governments with professional advisory services, training, and grants to improve records management. The LGRMIF is funded by the collection of a fee of $5.00 for recording, entering, indexing, or endorsing a certificate on any instrument in a county or for assigning an index number to actions pending in County or Supreme Court.
In 2002 an additional $15.00 surcharge was enacted to support the new CE Account. Counties retain $.25 of each LGRMIF surcharge and $.75 of each CE Account surcharge to defray their collection expenses. The LGRMIF fee has not changed since its inception in 1989, and the fee for CE Account has not changed since 2002.

Collapse of the Revenue Source
The fee structure for the account was an effective revenue source for the first two years of the Cultural Education Account’s existence. In fact, FY 2003-2004 and FY 2004-2005 produced Cultural Education Account revenue of $47,436,183 and $46,510,317 respectively. These revenue levels proved to be an historical aberration, and revenue has declined precipitously since that time. By the current fiscal year, annual fee-based revenue declined by 41%—a drop of $19 million from 2003-2004 to a projected level of $28,041,000 in FY 2008-2009. The average annual revenue for the Cultural Education Account would not have exceeded $32,000,000 if the account had existed between 1990 and 2002.

Use of Account Revenue for Other Purposes
The impact of the decline of CE Account revenue to its lowest historic level has been compounded by significant annual fund transfers to support non-OCE programs. Cash transfers from the CE Account to support programs not related to the Office of Cultural Education were budgeted at $7,600,000 in FY 2007-2008 and $6,000,000 in FY 2008-2009. Annual cash transfers in the FY 2008-2009 budget included $1,200,000 to the General Fund.

Accomplishments of the Cultural Education Account:

• In 2008, 1.5 million students participated in the New York State Library’s Statewide Summer Reading program and maintained or increased their reading skills.
• New Yorkers from over 5,500 K-12 schools, colleges, and local libraries used the State Library’s free online collection of high-quality research resources in education, business, health, history, literature, and current events 30 million times last year.
• Researchers used the State Library’s free online access to 100 specialized databases and 20,000 unique electronic journal titles over one million times last year.
• In the past year, over 200,000 pages of fragile records and manuscripts were digitized and made available 24/7 to students, researchers, citizens, and government staff.
• Last year, 215,000 teachers, administrators, and students used online curriculum resources through public broadcasting stations.
• The State Library provided 30,000 interlibrary loans to students, teachers, and researchers statewide last year.
• In addition, State Library staff answered 70,000 research questions for lawyers, genealogists, historians, business people, government workers, and other researchers.
• Approximately 15 million historical and natural history specimens and artifacts received care and were made accessible for research.
• Researchers from more than 100 universities, museums, and government agencies throughout the world used the Museum collections to generate new knowledge about New York State and about science and history.
• State Museum staff published over 80 works documenting the discovery of new knowledge about New York’s biodiversity, geology, archaeology, and history.
• Almost 800,000 people from across the world visited the State Museum’s 120,000 square foot exhibit gallery space, making it the single largest tourist attraction in the Capital Region.
• More than 200 million paper, parchment, photographic and electronic records have been preserved and made available for public use.
• State Archives staff responded to more than 60,000 research requests from government, business, and the general public.