Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cut the entirety of the state’s arts and culture funding in June 2024. This left hundreds of nonprofit theaters, zoos, museums, choirs, and orchestras scrambling to fill enormous holes in their budgets and endangered their ability to organize arts programs for millions of Floridians.
Out of a budget of $117 billion, the Florida State Department’s Division of Arts and Culture initially recommended almost $77 million in grants for statewide arts in culture institutions. Upon making its way through the state legislature’s Republican supermajority, that funding was cut to $33 million. However, once it reached the governor’s desk, he unilaterally vetoed the entire budget.
Governor DeSantis’ stated reason for the across-the-board cut was that, “You have tax dollars being given in grants to things like the Fringe Festival, which is a sexual festival where they’re doing all this stuff.” For context, Orlando’s Fringe Festival was slated to receive $150,000 in state funding for its lineup of 900 live performances, only half of which were rated for attendees over the age of 18.
DeSantis’ objections to a single Orlando festival endangered the fiscal solvency of 630 arts organizations. According to the state’s own statistics, in 2022, Florida’s nonprofit arts and culture organizations generated $151 billion dollars “supporting 2.6 million jobs, generating $29.1 billion in tax revenue, and providing $101 billion in personal income to residents.”
Many analysts interpret DeSantis’ decision as part of his years-long “War on Woke,” in which he has censored, weakened, or defunded sectors he perceived as bastions of liberal or left-wing ideology such as education, literature, and the arts.
