The Sanford Veto of Arts Funding

As an artist and musician (though, granted, at the moment I don't make a living at either - hmm... maybe I should add those to the computer consulting and cheesecake thing...), I sympathize with the concerns of the arts community in South Carolina over Governor Sanford's veto of funding earmarked for the South Carolina Arts Council. After being invited to a group in support of overturning this veto, I did a bit of research. Trying to ascertain the reasoning behind Sanford's veto was less than a simple affair. Most of the "news" results on Google turned out to be opinion pieces by various authors across the state, appearing in several newspapers. And most of those made no mention of the reasoning behind the veto, just that it was "bad." Eventually, however, I did manage to find some sources that explained the reasoning behind the veto and, after reading those reasons, I'm afraid I must fall on the governor's side of the fence. As long as the funding in question is tied to federal stimulus monies that, after a certain specified amount of time will no longer be available to the state, I cannot support this portion of the budget (or any portion of the state budget that relies on similar, temporary funds). It's irresponsible and can only lead to larger budgetary issues down the road.

If you truly support the arts in South Carolina, then actually support the arts in South Carolina. Go to shows, concerts, art exhibitions, plays, etc... Take some art classes. Produce your own art and put it into the marketplace (both economically speaking and intellectually and culturally speaking). But to rely on money that has an expiration date in order to "save" the arts in the state seems to me to be ignoring the real issues in exchange for applying a used Band-Aid.