Pinellas County commissioners voted Thursday night to cut about $1 million in funding for Creative Pinellas.
That's the county's designated arts agency that supports public arts projects and distributes grants to local artists.
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The preliminary 5-2 vote came after more than two hours of public comment, with more than 50 residents pleading with county officials to preserve the funding.
Commission Chair Brian Scott proposed the idea during a meeting last week, calling into question the "return on investment" the county receives from funding Creative Pinellas, primarily with tourism development tax dollars.
First to address the commissioners was Creative Pinellas CEO Margarey Murray. She said the county's proposal to discontinue funding came with little warning.
"Being blindsided like this gave us little opportunity to respond effectively, and in fact — and this is important — if we are not funded in this budget, our county lease requires that we vacate our offices and galleries by the end of the fiscal year in three weeks," she said.
Lifelong Pinellas resident Beth Daniels, who is president of the Clearwater Arts Alliance, urged commissioners to preserve the funding.
"Creative Pinellas receives less than 1% of the county's tourism tax and just 0.001% of the overall county budget," she said. "Defunding them would undercut — not preserve — the county's unique charm and the very tourism economy we all strive to see be successful."
The nonprofit, which was established in 2011, receives around $860,000 from the tourist development tax, $156,000 from the general fund and $36,000 from the transportation trust fund. Past funding has been used to maintain community gallery spaces, commission public art and administer grants to local artists.
Ahead of the vote Thursday night, Scott questioned the use of tourism tax dollars for supporting artists.
"I mean ... there were a lot of very passionate speakers today who said that the grants changed their lives. But that's not tourism," he said.
Along with Scott, commissioners Chris Latava, Kathleen Peters, Chris Scherer and Vince Nowicki voted to end the funding.
"I mean no disrespect to the people sitting behind me or people in the other room, but this really is .. .not life or death. Arts will still be here," Latava said.
The proposal comes with an earmark of about $500,000 for arts tourism grant funding that will be overseen by the county instead, but details aren't finalized.
"What you're proposing is not cutting funding to the arts, it's changing the delivery system to make it more efficient, and ... it's going to be toward the intent of what [tourism development taxes] are for," Commissioner Chris Scherer said ahead of the vote.
Commissioners René Flowers and Dave Eggers voted against the budget amendment.
Eggers scrutinized why the board was making hasty decisions regarding arts funding in the name of government efficiency.
"I just think it's a little quick, a little knee-jerk, and the knee-jerk reaction is DOGE telling us how to run our lives down here," he said.
DOGE refers to the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, launched this year to root out federal waste and since replicated in several states, including Florida.
Flowers, who said she appreciated the scrutiny over public spending, said she supported the continued funding for Creative Pinellas, but added it should with greater transparency and accountability.
The next hearing for Pinellas County is on Sept. 18.
