With 2009 shaping up to be a tough financial year for Cayuga County, some local arts organizations' government funding may dwindle to nothing.

The proposed 2009 budget, which was released last Thursday, had a recommendation from County Manager Wayne Allen to eliminate funding for the Cayuga Museum of History and Art and for the Cayuga County Arts Council. The museum currently receives $13,000 from the county and the arts council gets $4,000. The $13,000 accounts for more than 6 percent of the museum's budget, its executive director said.

County officials, however, said the museum appears to be doing well with fundraising.

“The museum has had quite a boost in their financial support and in their financial bases and the county hasn't,” said legislator Francis Mitchell, R-Genoa. “They obviously could stand such a cut, as far as I was concerned.”

Mitchell said that nothing has been “completely decided” and that the Legislature's Ways and Means Committee will talk to museum executive director Eileen McHugh before making a final decision.

“I rather suspect there will be something restored,” he said.

Mitchell declined to say how much funding would be appropriate, pointing out that he would prefer to go into the discussion open-minded.

McHugh said the county funds are crucial.

“I realize that they are trying to cut their budget. They are trying to save money, but this cut to the museum could be disastrous,” McHugh said. “The museum is operating as it is on a shoestring. There is no fat to be trimmed from the museum budget.”

The museum would not be able to absorb the cut and continue operating the way it has been, she said.

The operating budget has been cut in all possible ways and fundraising for the museum has been increased, with more than $27,000 in 2008 so far. The museum also has an endowment fund that supports 33 percent of its budget. The 2008 operating budget was $195,000, she said.

“Is the county punishing us for stepping up to the plate?” McHugh asked.

She will meet with the Ways and Means Committee Tuesday and explain how the museum has been using the money.

“We provide an economic, as well as a cultural asset, to this community,” she said. “It's my understanding that tourism is one of the few industries in Cayuga County that is growing and it's growing in part because of organizations like the museum that create an attraction that people can come to our community to see.”

More than 60 percent of the visitors to the museum are from outside the county, McHugh said. And she believes it is shortsighted for Allen to try to cut funding when the museum is proving to be successful.

She also wonders if the county is threatening to cut the funding to nothing so the museum will be happy with whatever amount it gets.

Sheli Graney, executive director for the Cayuga County Arts Council, said that she has not had the opportunity to discuss the potential loss of funding with members of her organization's board of directors, but she does understand arts funding in the county has been drastically reduced.

“I'm hopeful that the county finds a way to support the arts in our community,” she said.

The Merry-Go-Round Playhouse may potentially also lose funding based on Allen's recommendation to decrease the county's contribution from $10,500 to $8,000.

The Ways and Means Committee has met a couple of times since the proposed budget has been released to discuss where money needs to be added and where it can be taken away. One area of discussion was a proposed increase in mileage reimbursement for county legislators, which may be increased from $13,500 to $15,000 in 2009.

Daniel Sincebaugh, D-Auburn, believes that legislators should not be reimbursed for mileage, especially when that money could be used to fund arts organizations.

“That would be money well spent instead of giving it to the legislators that signed up for that job,” he said. “I do realize that some of these people have to travel quite a bit of a distance, but they volunteered for it.”

However, Ann Petrus, R-Brutus, supports legislators getting reimbursed. Comparing mileage reimbursement to funding for the arts in the county is like comparing apples to oranges, she said.

“If some of them - whoever they may be - don't want to take that mileage, we don't have to take it, we can refuse to take it,” she said.

McHugh is optimistic that the county will re-examine the situation.

“We definitely provide an asset to the community economically,” McHugh said. “I hope when they understand the situation, how closely we're cut to the bone already, that they will reinstate the funding.”

Staff writer Gitana Mirochnik can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or gitana.mirochnik@lee.net