Mountain Arts Community Center should raise their own funds
Our Town Council is considering paying for a massive overhaul of the Mountain Arts Community Center buildings. The MACC leaders are saying that their programs are essential to our community.
This council and past councils have already used our tax money to fund a budget of about $450,000 for the MACC. Maybe many have known, but I did not, that the MACC receives [class] fees of around $60,000. So roughly 85 percent of their budget is paid by all taxpayers.
I think a group like this should raise their own funds rather than forcing all of us to pay for their wants. They recently gave the council a petition signed by 50 citizens in support of the MACC. Imagine if you could get 50 to 100 people together and then get the council to pay for their wants. This is a wrong policy no matter what good they do.
It is clear from [the MACC’s] low fees that not enough of our citizens use their programs or they use them but do not pay enough for them. There is another similar group on the mountain that supports its programs either through fundraising (and those that use the programs are willing to pay to support), or fees. Yes, they are smaller, but how did it become all of our responsibility to pay over $400,000 for arts programs?