Power of Culture Blog
Opportunities to Take Action Against Federal Agency Cuts
Resources for shaping advocacy messages to Congress now
Bethann Steiner, Senior Director of Public Affairs
Each year the Governor, House of Representatives, and Massachusetts Senate take a turn building a state budget for the next fiscal year. It is through this legislation, the General Appropriations Act, that most state spending is approved.
As an independent state agency, Mass Cultural Council’s main source of funding is this annual budget bill. Therefore, it is through this state budget appropriation that the Commonwealth makes its largest public investment into the cultural sector each year.
The Governor’s H.1 budget for FY26, which begins on July 1, 2025, was released in January. Governor Healey recommended an appropriation of $26,045,152 for Mass Cultural Council, a 0.58% increase to the Agency’s current $25.9M operating budget.
Yesterday the House Committee on Ways & Means released its FY26 budget, and Mass Cultural Council is extremely grateful for the Committee’s decision to embrace the Governor’s recommendation for our budget account. The FY26 HWM budget invests $26,045,152 into arts and culture through Mass Cultural Council’s line item.
This figure, while short of the $28M spending request the Agency submitted earlier in the budgeting process, does represent a high-water mark for state investment into the cultural sector. Mass Cultural Council recognizes that our partners in the House and Senate have a very difficult budget year before them – with the uncertainty hanging over Massachusetts regarding federal funding, we are very thankful to the House Committee for embracing the Governor’s spending recommendation. It is certainly positive that we are not facing a proposed funding reduction at this time.
Mass Cultural Council thanks House Speaker Ron Marinaro, Ways & Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz, and Tourism, Arts & Cultural Development Chair Sean Garballey for their support and guidance through this process to date. We are grateful for their funding recommendation.
We are working with Chair Garballey and his Vice Chair, Rep. Steve Owens to secure $15,000 via Amendment #894 to support the Commonwealth’s first official Poet Laureate during the House Budget Debate at the end of the month.
We note with appreciation the commitment of our partners in advocacy, MASSCreative, as well as Mass Humanities, our partners working to steward arts, culture, creativity, and the humanities across all of Massachusetts, who join us in raising awareness about the power of culture and the need for sustained, robust, state funding for the cultural sector, especially now, when federal funding for arts, culture, and the humanities is under attack.
We encourage all participants of the cultural sector to engage with their colleagues and elected officials during Creative Sector Week, which is April 28-May 2, and to join us for Creative Sector Day at the State House on April 30.
The FY26 House Budget Debate will take place during Creative Sector Week. Once complete, the FY26 budget advances to the Massachusetts Senate, who is scheduled to debate its spending proposal in May.
