Temp: 31 °F
Saturday, June 23, 2001
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By ALAN GUENTHER, ANGELA RUCKER, KATHY MATHESON and EILEEN SULLIVAN
Courier-Post Staff
The proposed $22.9 billion state budget holds good news and some bitter disappointments for South Jersey arts groups and hospitals.
If this version of the 2001-2002 budget wins final approval next week, South Jersey could claim victory in a long-running funding feud. The proposed budget would force the state arts council to give 25 percent of its money to " cultural groups or artists based in the eight southernmost counties."
As the Courier-Post reported in a series of stories in April, previous wording in the state budget had allowed the New Jersey State Council on the Arts to divert more than $ 495,300 of South Jersey's money to arts groups in North Jersey. North Jersey groups were paid to stage shows in South Jersey, but groups here weren't offered money to perform in the north.
"Our goal has to be to erase any doubt about ... where we want the money to go," Assemblyman Joseph Roberts, D- Camden, said of the arts funding.
The Haddonfield Symphony had been hoping to get a $475,000 grant for educational programs, but the request didn't make the final cut, Roberts said. Furthermore, overall funding for the state arts council will not be increased from last year's $20 million, though local arts leaders had hoped for additional cash.
But there was good news for the Mainstage Center for the Arts in Gloucester Township.
"Get out!" said Mainstage executive director Ed Fiscella, when he learned of a special $150,000 grant proposed for his group. "We have been in desperate, desperate need of facilities."
His group has been rehearsing in a former bank built in 1920, and stores its stage props in a closed SuperFresh. If his group gets the money, he hopes to buy or lease a new place.
In Camden, officials at the South Jersey Performing Arts Center cautiously celebrated a proposed $1 million grant.
"We remain hopeful," said Barbara Fenhagen, executive director of SJPAC.
But Fenhagen knows the proposed budget can be slashed during votes by the Legislature next week. And it must pass a final review by acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco. By law, the budget must be adopted by June 30.
Several medical institutions in the area also stand to benefit from the proposed budget.
Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center in Camden would get an additional $3.1 million over what former Gov. Christie Whitman proposed in January. Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center would get an additional $1.5 million. And the Coriell Institute for Medical Research may be able to count on $1 million.
A Lourdes spokeswoman could not confirm the funding amount, but said any appropriation would be used for existing programs and services like the Osborn Family Health Center. A Cooper spokeswoman also could not confirm the amount nor detail how the funds would be used.
Coriell President and CEO David P. Beck said the proposed appropriation is extremely important to the research facility based in Camden. "It's what enables us to develop new programs and bring in cutting-edge equipment," he said.
Coriell leverages its state funding, which makes up just 6 percent or 7 percent of its total annual budget, to attract millions in funding from the federal government, private businesses and other sources.
In addition to those large health-care institutions, the budget proposal could make $200,000 available to Camden Optometric Eye Center, which provides vision screenings to low- and moderate-income city residents during the summer in a mobile clinic.
A teen smoking prevention program that is part of Virtua- Memorial Hospital of Burlington County, Mount Holly, is earmarked to receive $20,000.