Checklist for Local Earmarked Arts Taxes

Michael Rushton offers a personal checklist for proposing local earmarked taxes for arts funding, based on his experience teaching about the topic. Key questions include: defining the specific problem to solve, determining fund distribution (grants to individuals, nonprofits, or big institutions), expanding the coalition beyond arts to include museums, gardens, zoos, and bike paths, choosing an earmarked tax over general fund financing, selecting an appropriate geographic scale (e.g., metro Denver's seven-county district), deciding whether legacy institutions get guaranteed shares, and picking a tax base (sales tax, hotel tax, property tax) while avoiding regressive options like head taxes, lottery profits, or cigarette taxes. He critiques Portland's proposed streaming levy and notes that property tax increases are unpopular and can lower property values.