Nonprofit theaters are asking the state to restore relief after the money they were promised was swept into a recently approved spending bill.
A group of 17 theaters sent a letter to Gov. Ned Lamont asking him to restore the funding, including $3.5 million they were expecting by June 30.
The money was instead swept up into a bill, approved by the legislature in May, to reallocate as much as $400 million in unspent American Rescue Plan Act funding.
“It's not right to take money away that you had promised,” Hartford Stage Managing Director Cynthia Rider said.
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The ARPA money was promised to theaters as part of the current two-year budget, as was $2.6 million in the fiscal year starting July 1.
Rider said theaters need the money to offset losses as they continue to try and bring back audiences after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It's taken a while for audiences to come back, we know there are great inflationary pressures,” she said.
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Sen. Martin Looney, (D) President Pro Tem., said lawmakers relied on information from the Office of Policy and Management about what money had not been spent when negotiating the spending plan with Lamont.
“We are aware of the discrepancy with the ARPA reallocation dollars in regard to line items for certain theaters and we have been working to resolve the issue collaboratively with OPM,” Looney said.
Lamont acknowledged OPM included the money for theaters in the bill, “but at the end of the day it goes through the legislative process.”
He also did not sound as optimistic as Looney that the state would be able to find the money to restore the aid.
“We were hoping to keep the theaters going a little bit longer with some extra federal support,” he said. “We’ll see what we can do but it's pretty tight.”
Rider said the theaters provide benefits to the community, including free tickets from Hartford Stage to city residents.
She said theaters also often offer camps for area children. Rider warned theaters won’t be able to survive long-term without help from the state, though.
“You think ‘Oh, it’s been here for 60 years, it’s going to be here forever,” she said, referencing Hartford Stage’s 60th anniversary. That’s not true of Hartford Stage. It’s not true of any arts organization.”
