Joanie Mahoney
/ file photo
SYRACUSE -- Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney has written to the Cultural Resources Trust to support fifteen arts and cultural organizations that could be hurt by budget cuts.
The Onondaga County Legislature meets Tuesday to vote on changes they've recommended to Mahoney's $1.2 billion budget. Lawmakers want to cut 29 deputy positions and the Air-1 helicopter from the Sheriff's Department, along with nearly $400,000 in funding to various arts and cultural organizations including Syracuse Stage, the Onondaga Historical Association and the Museum of Science and Technology.
Mahoney's letter uring the CRT to consider funding the organizations, says she "doesn't know whether the CRT has committed any of its remaining funds to other purposes."
Tom Dadey, the new Onondaga County Republican Party chairman who also heads the Cultural Resources Trust, told CNY Central's Jim Kenyon that the agency has about a half million dollars on hand, but he doesn't know of the money can be used to subsidize operating costs for arts and cultural organizations. Dadey says the CRT's board will meet Tuesday, prior to the Legislature's session, to consider Mahoney's request.
In a related development, Mahoney reiterated her intention to veto those portions of the Legislature's proposals that "enhance revenues." The Legislature's Ways and Means Committee recommended last week $45 million in changes that include raising estimated sales tax revenue and dipping into reserve funds.
Click here to read the letter from Mahoney to the Cultural Resources Trust.
