By ALAN GUENTHER
Courier-Post Staff

In response to an outcry from state and federal lawmakers, Secretary of State DeForest Soaries is reviewing whether the state shortchanged South Jersey arts groups by $ 2.1 million over the past four years.

In a three-part series last month, the Courier-Post documented how South Jersey never received its full share of funding required by state law. In particular, the newspaper looked at how the New Jersey State Council on the Arts took money earmarked for South Jersey and gave it to North Jersey arts groups to put on shows in the southern part of the state.

"I think you're really onto something with this North- South issue," Soaries said. "It's a legitimate undertaking to assess the treatment of South Jersey, throughout the state government.

"I've been embarrassed, the number of times I've been to Gloucester County, Cumberland County and Cape May County, and the people actually thank me for coming as though I'm a guest in a foreign country. Nobody ever thanks me for coming to Newark," Soaries said.

State law requires the arts council to give 25 percent of its grant money to cultural projects in South Jersey. Council officials say they obeyed the law because, when they pay money to northern groups, they provide service to South Jersey.

But Soaries said that always struck him as "a very creative way of interpreting the law."

And Assemblyman Joseph Roberts, D-Camden, who helped write the law, said it was supposed to build arts groups in South Jersey, not fund performances by "missionaries" from North Jersey.

When Soaries became secretary of state in 1999, he was told there was a "broad consensus" among arts and political leaders on how the arts council handled money. But the newspaper's series convinced him that the issue must be re- examined, he said.

In the past two years, the arts council chipped away at South Jersey's 25 percent share of the money by giving $496, 824 to North Jersey.

When South Jersey groups perform in North Jersey, the arts council gives them nothing.

After the Courier-Post series was published April 8-10, Soaries wrote a memo to acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco, saying he intended to review the funding dispute.

"Although I am confident that the council's approach is legal, I am not convinced it can withstand scrutiny from the perspective of integrity," he said in the memo. He explained in an interview that by "integrity" he meant " fairness. A process that lacks fairness lacks integrity."

He said Kathleen Kisko, assistant secretary of state, will conduct the review.

"My goal is to ascertain if the council's funding of South Jersey is appropriate or is there need for improvement," he wrote.

The 16-member semiautonomous arts council is appointed by the governor. The council is in Soaries' Department of State, but he cannot tell it what to do.

Still, he can have considerable influence. Budget hearings are scheduled for Assembly and Senate committees on Tuesday and Wednesday. At both hearings, Soaries' staff will explain his department's budget, which includes the arts council.

DiFrancesco has recommended that the arts council receive $ 20 million - the same amount it got last year.

Assembly Budget Committee member Louis Greenwald, D- Camden, said he thinks more money for the arts could help end the dispute, as long as South Jersey gets its legal share.

Arts council spokeswoman Nina Stack said the council would be "absolutely happy to respond to the secretary's requests."

But she said "it is our understanding that he is doing an internal review for his own information."

Soaries said his inquiry will be finished by June 1 and is "not some academic fact-finding.

"I'll be giving the report to the governor," he said. "I'm the spokesman for the arts in New Jersey. I'm the one who advances the arts council's budget to the Legislature. I feel I have some moral responsibility to find the answers."

Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., said if the Legislature fails to protect South Jersey's interests, he will press the National Endowment for the Arts to audit the state arts council's spending.

Soaries said he did not want the arts council to adopt "a bunker mentality" during his inquiry.

"We have excellent people. They are doing a fine job," he said. But he wants to probe whether the arts council should change the way it evaluates and funds South Jersey groups with different histories and levels of achievement.

"To take the position that all we need to do is explain ourselves is inadequate," he said.

South Jersey legislators and arts leaders cheered Soaries' review.

"This latest revelation is extremely interesting," said Assemblyman Roberts. He said he's glad Soaries' review will be completed before the Legislature adopts the state budget.

"That will give us time to address any injustices that he finds," he said.

"Hurrah!" said Bruce Curless, artistic director of the Ritz Theatre in Oaklyn. The arts council rejected the Ritz' s request for funding, although the Ritz entertained more than 73,000 people during 226 shows last year.

But some of the arts groups in South Jersey that are already receiving funding defended the council.

"It is my hope that the good they accomplished is not overshadowed in examining one area where, according to the Legislature, they might have lacked good judgment," said Alan Willoughby, president of the South Jersey Cultural Alliance.

Soaries promised his review will be fair and complete.

"The Legislature will have access to every ounce of information I discover," Soaries said. "And they know that if I see it, I'll call it. I don't have any problems in telling anybody what I see."