Very interesting article by Bob Keyes in the Jan. 29 issue (”Maine arts groups prepare to fight Trump in case of budget cuts”). His comments on potential arts funding reductions to Maine organizations because of the efforts in Washington to control federal spending, while meaningful, are not new. For those in Waterville who have been reading your paper for many years, memories of two decades ago will quickly come to mind.
The city fathers at the time were trying to keep taxes low and decided to eliminate funding to many nonprofits offering art and similar services. Most of those organizations, including our Redington Museum, had funding phased out over a several-year program of reduced city subsidies. Our reduction in city funding occurred over five years at 20 percent per year.
A very few of those organizations have since started again to receive annual city tax supported funding, but most, including our museum, have not. It looks like the federal government has learned from our experiences.
Fred Johnson
president, Waterville Historical Society
Waterville
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