After dipping into reserve funds to cover projected revenue shortfalls next year, Lincoln City Council members are weighing whether the city should continue making cash contributions to local nonprofit groups.
Like other California cities, Lincoln has provided funding support to nonprofits, including the chamber of commerce and the Lincoln Arts and Culture Foundation.
Last year, the council cut its contributions by roughly half as the economy began to decline, according to Mayor Primo Santini.
The $128.9 million budget proposed for 2008-09 would eliminate nearly all general fund cash contributions to nonprofits. The exceptions would be $10,000 to the Lincoln Volunteer Center and $1,000 for Creek Week activities.
The council will hold a budget workshop at 1:30 p.m. Friday to discuss funding for nonprofit groups.
"Given that we cut monetary support for nonprofits by half last year, and we're now contemplating eliminating it, I thought it was an appropriate time to talk about whether we, as a council, were going in the policy direction of not monetarily supporting nonprofits, because we're doing that by default," Santini said.
He said that if the city were to fund the same groups at the same level as last year, it would cost another $50,000 to $60,000.
"The issue is a question of whether the city of Lincoln is going to have a policy of monetarily funding nonprofits in the community that we think provide a service," Santini said, adding that he supports funding them.
Two years ago, Lincoln was named an All America City by the National Civic League.
"The All America City process really emphasized relationships between governments, the private sector and nonprofit community," Santini said, "and it reinforced to me how important a healthy, nonprofit sector is to the overall health of a community."
The city's spending plan for next year also includes using $45,000 in Redevelopment Agency funds for the Lighthouse Resource Center and $10,326 in in-kind utilities costs to Lincoln Arts and the chamber of commerce.
Lincoln Arts leases a city-owned building downtown – where it has offices, a gallery and gift shop – for $1 a year. Under the proposed budget, the city would cover the group's utilities at a cost of $7,560 for the year.
The arts group used to receive $20,000 a year from the city, but that dropped last year to $10,000, according to Executive Director Claudia Renati. "We've asked the city to pay for our utilities because we just can't afford to it because of the economy," she said, adding that state grants for arts programs have all but dried up.
A group of residents started Lincoln Arts 22 years ago when school budget cuts eliminated classroom fine arts programs.
For 21 years, Lincoln Arts has put on Feats of Clay, an international show that draws about 6,000 people to Lincoln at a cost of roughly $90,000.
"It's the only arts agency here, and we've brought a lot of programming to this community. It's important that the city back us," Renati said.
The recent economic downturn and reduction in funding from the city has forced Lincoln Arts to cut its summer concert series, arts and crafts festival and after-school art classes.
"There's a huge, drastic cut in what we do," Renati said. "If we don't get the funds to do Feats of Clay, that might be lost."
Councilman Spencer Short said the issue isn't about the groups' worthiness but whether the city can afford to fund them.
"We're doing it only because times are really tough right now," Short said, adding that he supports providing in-kind contributions. "We should be talking to these organizations about how they can develop and strengthen, so they're not on financial life support and relying on the cash coming from the city to balance their budgets."
Both Short and Santini said the money going to nonprofits represents only a small fraction of the city's budget.
"But that's how much detail we're getting into this year because we're expecting a rough few years," Short said.
Call The Bee's Jennifer K. Morita, (916) 773-7388.
