Waving signs urging “Save Our Arts” and “Don’t Tax Behind Our Backs,” about 150 people gathered outside the Bellevue in Center City yesterday to protest a proposal to tax tickets for museums and performing-arts venues to balance the state budget.

State Sen. Larry Farnese, (D., Phila.) one of three state senators who participated in the noontime rally, said he would “join my colleagues in the Philadelphia Senate delegation, and we will fight to oppose this tax.”

Though Farnese openly opposed the tax at the rally, he did not say he would oppose the state budget when it comes up for a vote in the legislature. Farnese said that many of the arts institutions affected by the tax were in his district and that he and the Philadelphia Senate delegation, under Chairwoman Sen. Shirley Kitchen, would meet to “see what we can do.”

Farnese also said he had “not seen any language on how this money [from the tax] will be spent.”

“A community’s health is judged by the health of its arts,” said Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery). He also encouraged the crowd to spread the word that the tax should not go through.

The proposed tax would add 8 percent to the cost of tickets to plays, museums, concerts, and zoos in the city and 6 percent elsewhere. Movie tickets and sporting events are exempt. “It’s ironic that [the arts will have] a higher tax than major-league sports,” said Todd Holtsberry, a member of the Secret Room Theatre and the Philadelphia Dramatists Center. “Their players seem to get paid a lot more money.”

Currently, fans at pro sporting events pay the city’s 5 percent amusement tax on tickets.

During recent budget talks, Gov. Rendell insisted that legislative leaders come up with additional sources of revenue to close a budget hole and recommended lifting some exemptions to the state sales tax. He said he didn’t care where the money came from as long lawmakers didn’t tax clothing or food. Senate GOP leaders chose what critics are now calling the “arts tax.”

The deal, tentatively approved by Rendell and Senate and House Democratic leaders, also calls for the bulk of the money raised from the tax to go into a separate fund that would be funneled back to cultural attractions statewide in the form of grants. Plans for the somewhat impromptu demonstration yesterday began Tuesday night when Thom Weaver, a theater lighting designer, sent out an e-mail to members of the arts community that went “viral.” He said excitement and fear over the proposed tax drew an immediate response.

At the rally, Weaver told the crowd that the legislators supporting the tax think they are “attacking the elite artists wearing their scarves and drinking lattes. . . . But take a look around you. I don’t see any of those here. I see hardworking men and women who need to provide for their families, provide for their children, pay mortgages.”

The protesters, mostly college students and members of the theatrical union Actors Equity, marched south down Broad Street to the University of the Arts after the protest, chanting “Save our arts!”

“I think it’s ridiculous that they’re taxing our arts,” said Tess Kunik, a freshman at the University of the Arts.

“There are better things that could be taxed,” said Graham Hooper, also a freshman at the school.

Waving signs saying “Save our Arts” and “Don’t Tax Behind Our Backs,” nearly 150 people massed at the Bellevue in Center City to protest a proposal to tax tickets for museums and performing-arts venues to balance Pennsylvania’s state budget.

State Sen. Larry Farnese, one of three state senators to join in the noontime protest, said he “will join my colleagues in the Phildelphia Senate Delegation, and we will fight to oppose this tax.”

State Sen. Daylin Leach denounced the proposed tax as a “backroom deal” and said he would oppose the tax, but not necessarily the state budget.

Leach encouraged the crowd to spread word that the tax should not go through.

The tax will add 8 percent to the cost of an arts ticket in the city and 6 percent elsewhere.

Organizer Thom Weaver, a theater lighting designer, said he sent out an e-mail about the protest on Tuesday that went “viral,” resulting in a larger than expected turnout.

The protesters, mostly college students and members of the theatrical union Actors Equity, marched down the Avenue of the Arts following the protest, chanting “Save our arts!”

The march ended at City Hall at about 1 p.m. with a crowd of nearly 30 University of Arts students singing and shouting.

On Monday, hundreds of determined arts leaders attending the annual meeting of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts vowed to fight the tax, saying it would hurt museums and performance arts groups.

Lawmakers’ decision to tax cultural forums is an easy, but wrong out after budget negotiations

Working over deadline usually prompts hasty compromises and quick decisions, but Gov. Rendell and the Pennsylvania legislature took their sweet time agreeing on a state budget, which was announced last Friday. As the last state to do so, their “deal-making” is hardly something to applaud. And given the tentative budget’s state sales tax on performing arts, there may soon be even less to applaud in Pennsylvania.

In addition to taxing performing arts – plays, ballets, concerts, museum admissions, zoos, historical sites and parks – the new budget taxes cigarellos for the first time, raises cigarette taxes by 25 cents a pack, takes an additional 2 percent of slot-machine gambling revenue and legalizes table games, like blackjack, poker, craps and roulette.

It makes sense to tax tobacco products and gambling since they are generally seen as “bad.” The idea of a sin tax is certainly not new, and lawmakers obviously relied heavily on that idea.

But here’s the thing: Far from being a societal ill, it’s actually good for people to enjoy the arts. Performing arts and intellectual attractions don’t just promote cultural appreciation – on a more practical level, these activities get people out in the community and allow time with family and friends in some good wholesome fun. And without any tax, it already costs a family of four $66 to see the Philadelphia Zoo. Toss in an 8-percent sales tax, and it would cost the same family $71.28.

Additionally, part of the notion of a sin tax is that people will grumble, but they will still buck up for their nicotine fix or gambling habit. But that’s not necessarily true of an occasional cultural excursion, especially in this economy. According to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, states reduced their arts funding this fiscal year by 7 percent on average (The amount of arts funding for Pennsylvania is still undetermined.).

“As a student living on a budget, it’s a wonderful treat to get to see a theatrical or orchestral performance in Philadelphia once in a while,” wrote College senior Esther Burke in an e-mail. “Unfortunately, a tax on those tickets could be the factor that puts them out of my price range.”

To add insult to injury, sporting events and movies are not included under the umbrella of the new tax. Not only do these draw larger audiences, but they are also typically for-profit, making them doubly more resilient than largely nonprofit arts organizations.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of this tax is that there are other, more reasonable products to tax.

Every other state imposes excise taxes on smokeless tobacco, and all but Florida taxes cigars. Furthermore, polls show 7 out of 10 Pennsylvanians support these taxes. Yet cigars and smokeless tobacco are still exempt, as are tobacco and accessories for rolling your own cigarettes.

Another tax that would definitely be more controversial than a tobacco tax, but also more lucrative, is a soda tax. The rationale behind taxing soda is similar to why cigarettes are taxed so unmercilessly. Smoking collectively has a negative impact on public health in just the same way that soda does. Taxpayers end up paying medical costs for obesity and excessive weight through Medicaid and Medicare, so it seems only fair that a tax on sugary beverages could go toward covering state health care costs.

The idea got kicked around briefly at the beginning of the health-reform debate, and some cities are already moving forward with the concept. San Francisco recently implemented a tax on retailers that sell sugary beverages, and New York, while not quite bold enough to implement a tax, rolled out an ad campaign featuring drinks being poured in a glass with fat oozing over the sides. The slogan? “Don’t drink yourself fat.”

These are just a few ideas of other ways Pennsylvania could have raised its tax revenue in a productive way. With so much time and initial gridlock, I’m disappointed our lawmakers weren’t a little more creative.

Unprecedented lack of a state budget is hurting local nonprofit cultural and arts organizations. On top of less money, they now hear that the state six percent sales tax may be applied to their admission prices. The news was not welcomed by affected organizations in Wayne County.

As was reported by The Associated Press, the plan would extend Pennsylvania’s six percent sales tax to tickets for the performing arts, museums, historical sites, zoos and parks. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman stated it is partly designed to shift the taxpayers’ share of financing those activities onto their patrons. Much of the money, however, would flow into the state’s coffers to be used to be spent on other programs.
The proposed new tax is included in the current budget version on the table in Harrisburg.

Wayne County Historical Society
For the Wayne County Historical Society, a more immediate concern is the anticipated loss of state grant funding. Executive Director Sally Talaga said that the Society has an operating budget of approximately $85,000 a year, and $10,000 of that has been coming from the state.

In the spring, however, Governor Rendell proposed to save money by slashing all grants distributed through the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission (PHMC). For the last 16 years, the Society has received general operating support money from the PHMC, which matches the allocation given by the county commissioners. In recent years that amount has been $10,000.

General operating funds help cover heat, lighting and other utilities for the museum in Honesdale. The Society hasn’t begun to work on the 2010 budget yet, but the trustees may have to consider dramatically cutting hours and possibly staff time, to make up for the loss. Talaga said that even if the new state budget restored the funding, the time it takes to apply and receive the funds means they wouldn’t expect the funding until late 2010.

Grants for special projects have also been cut, which promises to slow progress on the Society’s Towpath to Trail Project in Palmyra Township, she said.

As for the six percent sales tax, she said she expected they would have to add it to the admission price but could not comment further,

Dorflinger Suydam Sanctuary
At Dorflinger Suydam Sanctuary, alarm has been raised over the proposed tax. Executive Director Joan Gillner said that they would either have to add the tax to the ticket price for their Wildflower concerts and glass museum admission, or absorb the cost. Although the summer concert series did all right, museum visits were down this year, she noted.

Already “operating on a shoe string,” Gillner remarked, they hope they wouldn’t have to raise the concert ticket price, currently $20. Dorflinger also makes use of a state grant from the Pa. Performing Arts on Tour (Pa. PAT), which helps pay expenses for bringing some of their performers to White Mills. Gillner heard that this funding source may be cut.

As many as 3,000 to 4,000 people attend the Wildflower concert series each year, she stated.
Ritz Company Playhouse

Sandy Gabrielson, board member at Ritz Company Playhouse in Hawley, said he has written to State Representative Mike Peifer with his suggestion that not-for-profit organizations should be exempt from the tax or set a revenue limit of $50,000 a year before tax applies. Smaller groups, such as Ritz, will be hurt the most, he stated.

Approximately 5,000 people are expected to attend their plays this year, he said. He reasoned that if the tax is supposed to fund the grant money given out, then with $900 to $1,800 Ritz receives annually from Pa. PAT, Ritz would be better off keeping the six percent than paying the tax. Ritz brings in about $35,000 in box office receipts each year.

Most of their theater attendants are senior citizens, who pay $10/ticket; adding a sales tax and rounding it off, they’d be charged $11. If this means less people will be able to afford to go to the play, he added, how would that help the state budget?

by KYW’s Tony Romeo

Despite pleas from the arts community, a spokesman says Governor Rendell is standing by a proposed sales tax on admission to cultural sites and events as part of the state budget deal announced last Friday.

Spokesman Barry Ciccocioppo says Governor Rendell met with leaders of the arts community for about a half an hour on Wednesday. Ciccocioppo says the governor listened to their concerns, and reminded them that the sales tax on tickets was a Senate Republican proposal:

“But that he accepted it because it met his criteria that a budget provide recurring revenue to balance this year and next, and provide funding for education and health care.”

Ciccocioppo says the governor expressed frustration that lawmakers wouldn’t defy “special interests” and consider a tax on smokeless tobacco products, but also said he is hopeful that the sales tax on tickets will create a special fund to insure that the arts community is protected in future budgets.

Many performing arts programs, zoos and museums are run on a shoestring budget.

They usually use much of their ticket sales to pay staff and keep operations functioning.

That’s why we are surprised to see budget negotiators apparently asking these groups to take on the added financial burden of helping to fill the gaping budget hole.

Lawmakers and Gov. Ed Rendell are counting on these entities to bring in up to $120 million in state revenues for the spending plan they are moving forward for a vote in the General Assembly.

Tremors are traveling through the arts community for organizations such as the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Open Stage of Harrisburg and Hershey Entertainment, which books concerts at Hersheypark Stadium and Giant Center.

With no warning, they are all trying to understand exactly whether the 6 percent sales tax would apply to them.

Sen. Jake Corman, Republican appropriations chairman, said that only “professional” performances would be taxed. What does that mean?

Most small nonprofit groups, from museums to choral groups to community theaters, operate with only a few paid staff, the rest are volunteers.

Certainly an argument could be made for taxing bigger entities that bring in acts such as Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen, but taxing smaller organizations just doesn’t make sense.

Supporters argue some of the money will go to a special state fund for the arts and cultural institutions.

This, they say, would provide constant funding even during unsure budgetary times. So far no one has made public any research that shows exactly how much money will be channeled into this fund and, if so, whether arts programs would be better off than under the current system.

Sen. Corman says this tax works because arts and entertainment events are the ultimate discretionary buy.

Really? We wonder whether there also might be another reason for them being chosen.

Professional spectator sports also were on the list of new tax possibilities. A tax would have brought in a projected $65.3 million, according to projections. That ended up not being included.

It is difficult to overlook the lobbying power of professional sports teams.

During football season, our governor even appears on Comcast’s Philadelphia Eagles pregame and postgame shows as a regular commentator.

In Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, pro franchises managed to get taxpayer funding for new stadiums when financial times were better yet they are not being asked to help with the commonwealth’s deficit now that times are tougher.

Instead of the Steelers and Phillies helping close the budget gap, nonprofit organizations, such as the Pittsburgh Zoo, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and Harrisburg’s Market Square Concerts, seem slated for that.

And if lawmakers and the governor argue these are tough times that call for tough decisions, how about looking for recurring revenue from a tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco that could bring in $70 million?

Add to that a severance tax on Marcellus shale drilling, estimated by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center at $47 million (and expected to increase in coming years) along with a sales tax on spectator sports and you have a grand total of $182.3 million.

Of course, unlike the sports and natural gas industries, not many nonprofit arts and entertainment organizations nor their audiences have powerful lobbyists.

Legislative leaders are discussing the budget details with their rank-and-file members this week before a vote on the spending plan.

There is still time for members to say no to a sales tax on the arts, museums and zoos.

This is an idea on which lawmakers should close the curtain.

FRANKLIN COUNTY — A tentative solution to the 85-day state budget impasse could make a number of organizations, school districts and municipalities happy, but arts and entertainment venues are not among those rejoicing.

The new budget deal, which is yet to be officially passed and approved, extends the statewide 6 percent sales tax to arts and entertainment venues and performances.

Tickets for concerts, plays, ballets and other performances were previously exempt from the sales tax but will soon lose that exemption if the budget is approved. Museums and zoos are also included in the tax, but tickets to movie theaters and professional sporting events remain exempt.

Local theaters react

Several local arts organizations say they are concerned and confused at the news of the new tax as they continue to watch their revenue from the state decline.

They expect it to harm their already-wilting budgets and deter patrons from attending as many shows as before.

“That’s an awful amount of tax when ticket sales are already down,” said Linda Boeckman, manager of the Capitol Theatre in Chambersburg.

She said the tax comes at a difficult time for theaters and play houses as they suffer with the recession.

Ticket sales took an “absolute nosedive” for the theater last year as the economy worsened, Boeckman said. Sales picked up this year, but they are still down by about 10 percent compared to average years.

Now, the theater’s $30 ticket price would jump by about $1.80.

That’s not a significant amount, Boeckman said, but it would cost a family of five almost $10 more to attend a play. Those families would probably cut back on buying concessions items, she said, which affects the theater’s bottom line.

The Capitol Theatre’s budget is approximately $430,000. In an average year, ticket sales accumulate $80,000 to $100,000, including sales from Chambersburg Community Theatre and Chambersburg Ballet.

When all is said and done, the theater breaks roughly even.

Sally Herritt, executive director of CCT, said she fears that the new tax could ultimately lead to the death of some arts organizations.

She expects the ticket price hike that would come as a result of the tax to impact the accessibility of arts to the public.

“It could very possibly cause someone to go out (of business),” she said. “If we disappear, then that’s one less opportunity for people to be schooled in the arts.”

Holly DeKarske, executive director of Chambersburg Area Council for the Arts, said arts companies can only tighten their belts so far as state funding decreases.

“At some point you’ve cut it so tight that you cut of circulation,” she said.

Although big cities with large theater communities might fair just fine with the ticket tax, she said, sooner or later the smaller grassroots organizations could go under.

Such a downfall would hurt local economies, Herritt said.

Fewer theatergoers means fewer people in the downtown, she said. They won’t be eating in the nearby restaurants and they won’t be browsing the stores.

As director of an organization that distributes state funds for local performances, DeKarske wants to see the funds recovered by the tax come back to arts funding.

“I think in the end it’s just going to end up costing everyone more money,” she said. “This is just going to the state budget somewhere, to fill that magical black hole we’ve all heard about.”

Budget negotiators say the funds will be reserved for arts and cultural institutions.

The lawmakers’ take

Legislative leaders came to a budget agreement last week without removing any sales tax exemptions.

That agreement, however, did not meet Rendell’s two goals.

A spokesperson in the governor’s press office said Tuesday that he wanted the budget to include enough recurring revenue to sustain the budget for this year and next, while avoiding cuts to health care and education.

Erik Arneson, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Glen Mills, said Rendell told legislators to remove the sales tax exemption from one or more specific items in order to get enough recurring revenue into the budget.

He said the governor gave them a list of acceptable taxes, telling them to choose.

Theater, dance, music and performing arts were included on the list, as were museums, historical sites, zoos and parks.

“Very reluctantly, legislative leaders agreed to impose those taxes with two conditions,” Arneson said. “First, that the bulk of the revenue generated be used to create a special fund to support the arts and cultural institutions; and second, that this would close the budget negotiations.”

He added, “By refusing to include any growth in his revenue estimates for 2009-10, Governor Rendell forced the legislature to choose from a menu of bad options.”

When asked why the tax did not extend to sporting events or movie theaters, Arneson said Rendell had “serious reservations” about extending it to those venues.

Barry Ciccocioppo, a spokesperson for the governor, told the Philadelphia Inquirer Monday that taxing professional sports teams’ ticket sales would contradict agreements the respective cities hold with them. It would end up forcing the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to foot the bill.

The governor’s spokesperson contacted by Public Opinion Tuesday said he would not have enough information to address questions about movie theaters or sporting events until the bill is introduced to the conference committee.

Local backlash

“It’s disappointing that the government feels the arts and entertainment fields need to be taxed, but they don’t seem to feel all the arts should be taxed,” Boeckman said.

DeKarske, a sports fan, agrees with Boeckman.

“If they’re going to tax our arts tickets they should be taxing our sports as well,” she said. “It should be across the board.”

Meanwhile, a lack of information about the bill, and contradiction between the governor and the legislators, has arts institutions scratching their heads.

“This just raises a big cobweb of questions,” Herritt said. She is unsure whether she will be forced to levy the tax on her patrons, since Chambersburg Community Theatre is made up of amateur actors, rather than professionals.

Although budget negotiators are clear that the taxes will not affect school performances, they seem unsure whether amateur community theaters will be taxed the same as theaters that employ professionals.

No one had an answer Tuesday.

“The idea was to try to make it a user fee as much as possible,” said Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The plan, a late addition in the negotiations that yielded a deal that would end Pennsylvania’s status as the only state without a complete budget, has provoked strong opposition but advocates for the arts likely face an uphill climb in their effort to derail it.

The proposed elimination of the current exemptions for artistic and cultural events is expected to generate roughly $120 million a year _ about twice as much as those activities currently receive through various state appropriations, Corman said.

A portion of the revenue would be funneled into a special fund reserved for supporting the arts and cultural institutions. The rest would help pay for other items in the nearly $28 billion state budget deal struck by Gov. Ed Rendell and leaders of three of the four legislative caucuses.

The percentage that would be earmarked for the special fund was still being firmed up _ like many details of the budget deal _ and could generate more or less than previous appropriations for artistic and cultural events, Corman said.

“It’s up in the air because it hasn’t been written,” Corman said in a telephone interview from his district office in Bellefonte.

The idea surfaced for the first time Friday night, shortly before the governor, Corman and other top lawmakers announced the budget deal may end an impasse nearly three months into the new fiscal year.

The partisan deadlock forced tens of thousands of state employees to temporarily work without pay until Rendell signed a partial budget in August providing limited funds to keep state government operating. But some daycare centers have closed, some preschools have not yet opened and mentally ill people have to wait longer for counseling because hundreds of nonprofit agencies have not received state reimbursements they rely on.

The money to be generated from extending the 6-percent tax to artistic and cultural events was a final component to seal an agreement between Senate Republicans and Rendell, who had demanded more reliable sources of revenue before he would sign on.

Advocates for arts groups said they were stunned by news of the proposal and said it would discourage people from attending performances or visiting cultural institutions.

“What were you thinking?” asked Peggy Amsterdam, head of the Philadelphia Cultural Alliance at a Monday night meeting where hundreds of arts leaders criticized the budget negotiators and vowed to try to block the proposal.

“It will price everyday people out of arts experiences and it will push key cultural institutions to the brink,” Amsterdam told the gathering at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

On the other side of the state, the executive director of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre expressed a similar sentiment.

“It’s a bad idea to tax the nonprofit arts sector,” said Harris Ferris. “Many of us have adjusted our ticket prices and packaged them to be accessible to the greater community. We want people to be able to come to the performing arts, which is a $2 billion annual sector of the economy.”

A spokesman for Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Co., which books major concerts at Hersheypark Stadium and the Giant Center near Harrisburg, said the state should be promoting cultural activities for families, not making them more expensive to attend.

“We are most disappointed that there weren’t any advanced discussions regarding the impact that this new tax would have on individuals and families who want to attend these cultural or live entertainment events,” said the spokesman, Garrett Gallia.

Philip Horn, executive director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, which dispensed $14.5 million in state grants to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations last year, said he did not learn about the proposal until Saturday.

Culture czarina Peggy Amsterdam may as well have been rallying compatriots to battle on the ramparts in “Les Miserables.”

Last night, the feisty Amsterdam urged mavens of the region’s arts and culture community to oppose the state’s 6 percent sales tax on tickets to concerts, live theater, performing arts, zoos and museums.

“This is the fight for our lives,” said Amsterdam, president of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, which recently unveiled a campaign seeking to double audiences to arts and cultural events by 2020.

“Why are the arts singled out, and movies and sports exempt?” she asked. Revenues from the proposed tax would amount to “only a paltry one-third of one percent of the budget.”

To Gov. Rendell, she asked one question: “What were you thinking?”

The crowd responded with thunderous applause at the alliance’s annual meeting at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Hear this!” Amsterdam vowed to politicians in Harrisburg. “We will not sit quietly by, and accept this, will we?”

“No!” roared the audience, representing 390 arts and cultural organizations in the alliance.

“So, Gov. Rendell and legislative leaders: In the next few days, you will hear from us,” Amsterdam vowed. “We will clog your fax machines. We will call and visit you.”

And she told members of the alliance that they had only 10 days “to make a difference before this [arts tax] becomes law.”

“Call your legislators and oppose the expansion of the sales tax and get your board members to complain,” she added. She didn’t rule out hiring buses for advocates to lobby legislators.

Amsterdam accused Rendell and the arts-tax proponents – Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, and Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson – of trying to solve the budget crisis “on the backs of the most vulnerable while pushing cultural organizations to the brink.

“This is a repressive tax that will affect the poorest communities,” citing seniors, single parents, families and students, she said. “These are the people who will be forced to pay the new tax.

“This will tax people out of our cultural institutions,” she added.

Mayor Nutter, who arrived after the rally, said the “arts, culture and creative expression is the heart and soul of Philadelphia.”

The arts economy generates $1.2 billion in the five-county area and provides 20,000 jobs, but it has been hit hard by the recession with layoffs and shortened programs, he said.

So the alliance and the city have prepared a $250,000 proposal to the feds seeking to save jobs in 11 arts organizations, he added.

By Karen Heller
Inquirer Columnist

On the plus side, at least this time the brilliant aesthetes in Harrisburg didn’t vote themselves a juicy pay raise.

Instead, in a last-minute quarterback sneak of budgetary maneuvers, legislators taxed culture – museums, music, the theater – all the things fancy-pants city slickers attend.

They avoided taxing manly-man pursuits like football, just as they didn’t tax cigars (only cigarillos) because that might put a damper on their smoke-filled rooms.

They didn’t tax movies, either, though attendance is up 9 percent nationally. Heaven forbid Harrisburg’s Renaissance men pay more to drool over Jennifer’s Body.

Instead, they won an 8 percent surcharge on tickets and membership at arts and cultural organizations in Philadelphia, 6 percent elsewhere, at a time when endowments are down, giving is down, and attendance is down. The taxes will create a new arts fund, which would return revenue to the arts. The logic is surreal.

“I don’t know what Gov. Rendell and the leaders of the legislature were thinking,” Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance president Peggy Amsterdam said before launching a “Fight the Arts Tax” movement at last night’s fall meeting. “The really sad thing is we try to make cultural experiences accessible and affordable to everyone. This is going to make it harder.” Increased ticket prices, she argued, will drive away even more patrons already hit by the recession.

Of the alliance’s 390 member institutions, 40 percent are suffering deficits, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, with shortfalls of $3.3 million last fiscal year and a projected $7.5 million this year. It’s like drawing blood from an anemic. Amsterdam says projecting $100 million in annual tax revenues is pure folly: “Our estimates are nowhere near that – maybe $20 million statewide.”

Arts administrators complain there are no details on how much will be redirected or where. What’s to prevent Republican lawmakers from taking Philadelphia Museum of Art revenues and shipping them, say, to the Enchanted Woodlins chainsaw carvings of Elk County?

“If this had been proposed totally across the board on all forms of entertainment, you might say, ‘This stinks. It adds to our challenges, but these are really difficult times and we’re all doing our share,’ ” said Cultural Alliance chairman Hal Real. “But it’s not across the board. And it’s symptomatic of how undervalued the arts are in our culture.”

As opposed to sports. The state and city coughed up $181.2 million to build Lincoln Financial Field, basically a publicly financed private club where most of us will never score a ticket.

The irony is that Eagles fans will pay anything, go into debt, or refi, for the pure pleasure of watching their team get massacred as so much roadkill.

No one thought to tax the Penn State Nittany Lions, either. Because Beaver Stadium has more than 107,000 seats, a ticket tax could generate enough to fund Joe Paterno’s salary and assist basic education throughout the state.

The governor and his staff are to be applauded for holding up the budget process to win $300 million in education funding. But you have to wonder how Rendell could turn around and allow such a punitive tax structure on the Avenue of the Arts or the Kimmel Center, which he and his wife championed in the first place. Perhaps he was so worn down from the fighting that he surrendered to the stupid, shortsighted, and misguided economics of the entire scheme.

The tax appears to be neither fair nor evenly distributed, since the burden falls largely on the state’s two largest cities, another example of Harrisburg Republicans’ us-vs.-them mentality. And it redefines the notion of a nonprofit.

If you were a deeply cynical sort of person, even someone with a fleeting knowledge of the sour feelings Republicans have for Philadelphia and Rendell, you might think this latest culture tax was a spirited flamenco dance atop the city’s fiscal woes.