Give more money to South Jersey arts groups, spread funds fairly around the state, and don't let a few large groups hog too much of the money.

That's what Republican and Democratic members of the Assembly Budget Committee told Secretary of State DeForest Soaries at a hearing Tuesday afternoon.

By June 1, Soaries will give the governor his completed review of how the New Jersey State Council on the Arts hands out money, with an eye, he said, toward making changes.

"Defending the status quo is an inadequate response," Soaries told the committee.

Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden, led the questioning of Soaries about the arts council policies, based on a series of stories published April 8-10 in the Courier-Post.

The newspaper documented how the arts council has never given 25 percent of its money to South Jersey groups, as as legislators say they intended when they wrote the state budget law.

Instead, the council paid $2.1 million over the past four years to North Jersey groups and statewide organizations to provide service to the southern eight counties.

The arts council is scheduled to receive $20.1 million, essentially the same amount it received last year, although $1.2 million in special legislative add-ons would be eliminated.

However, the proposed budget would no longer guarantee 25 percent of the arts council's money would go to cultural projects in the eight southernmost counties, according to an analysis by the state's nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.

But Greenwald said that he would work with his fellow South Jersey lawmakers to insert stronger, more focused wording that would guarantee at least 25 percent of the council's money would go directly to groups in South Jersey.

Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Leonard Lance, R- Hunterdon, said he would support a stronger, clearer guarantee for South Jersey groups, as long as rural counties in Northwest Jersey also get more money.

Warren, Sussex and Hunterdon counties - home base for the Republican budget committee chairmen in both the Senate and the Assembly - get less money than most other counties, Lance complained.

The Star-Ledger of Newark published a front-page story Tuesday that questioned how the arts council awards grants. According to the Ledger's analysis of 151 grant applications last year, 58 percent of the $14 million in general operating grants awarded by the council went to 10 organizations.

Of those 10 groups, eight had former or current members of the arts council or former state government officials on their boards of directors.

Barbara Russo, executive director of the arts council, denied that the New Jersey Symphony, Newark's performing arts center and a few other established groups consumed too much of the council's money.

"I think it's important we fund the groups that demonstrate excellence," she said in an interview. "But there is always room for improvement in the process."