From Kansas: Arts bill a good one

After a year of turmoil and anxiety about Gov. Sam Brownback’s decision last year to eliminate public funding for the arts in Kansas, a solution is at hand that appears to be acceptable to the governor, members of the arts community and an overwhelming majority of the state’s legislators.

We say at hand because the solution is on the way to Brownback’s desk and indications are he will sign the legislation, although it includes more money that he initially recommended. The figure, however, doesn’t appear to be overly burdensome. The governor should sign the bill and put the issue to rest.

Brownback’s signature would complete a reversal, or at least a partial reversal, of his stance on the issue of public funding for the arts and restore some color to the cheeks of those who paled last year when the arts community lost not only the state money it had received for years but also the matching money those funds generated from the National Endowment for the Arts and a regional arts alliance.