Utah Cultural Advocacy Alliance Grade: A+ (100%)

  • Candidate Name: R Scott Phillips
  • Your Municipality: Cedar City
  • Elected office for which you are running: City Council

Question 1: Should government be involved in funding the arts and humanities?
Yes

Question 2: Have you had a personal experience with arts, culture, or humanities that have had an impact on your life?
Yes

3b // Optional, explain your experience.
The arts have the power to engage indivuduals to new ideas and ways of thinking about themselves and their surroundings. Art and culture inter-actions can shape cities, regions, states, and countires like nothing else. They are a part of the fabric of who we are as human beings. The arts encourage us to celebrate!

Question 3: Do you support public funding for city and county arts councils who then re-grant that money to local arts and humanities organizations?
Yes

3b // Optional, explain why or why not.

Question 4: Do you support Percent for Art programs, which designate 1% of public building costs for public art that are included within that building? Currently, only 8 Utah municipalities have such a program.
Yes

4b // Optional, explain why or why not.

Question 5: Do you support having a Percent-for-Art program in your own municipality?
Yes

5b // Optional, explain why or why not.
The percent for the art programs are the best and most direct way to help provide services to all citizens. The local Recreation, Arts, and Parks tax in Cedar City has provided millions of dollars for RAP prgramming and captial imporvments since its inception nearly 10 years ago.

Question 6: Do you consider the arts and cultural sector an economic driver in Utah?
Yes

6b // Optional, explain why or why not.
I have seen it first hand. Iron Colony recently particpated in Round 5 of the American for the Arts Prosperity Study. It was found that $76M is generated in Iron County each year as a direct result of arts and culture programming. It employs hundreds of people and helps keep taxes lower for all Cedar City residents.

Question 7: 32 municipalities have a RAP (recreation, arts, and parks) type tax to help support cultural organizations in their communities. Would you support a RAP type tax such as this in your own municipality? If your municipality already has such a local option sales RAP-type sales tax and you support it, answer yes.
Yes

7b // Optional, explain your experience.
Cedar City has one, and I fully support it. I helped to get it passed the first two times that it appeared on the Cedar City ballot.

Question 8: Municipalities can facilitate partnerships between cultural organizations and the local tourism sector to boost the local economy. Do you support this? Optional, explain why or why not. 
Yes

8b // Optional, explain why or why not.
Becasue it works. Both are strong economic drivers in our state, and we should do more to combine them. It is truly a win-win situation. 

Question 9: Municipal governments can create Cultural Districts - with or without tax incentives. Governments sometimes fund these via bed or tourism taxes within the Cultural District boundaries, but it can be done within municipal budgets fairly cheaply. Is this something you would support?
Yes

9b // Optional, explain why or why not. 
I would support. However, you need to make sure in some of the smaller communities there is enough cultural activity and organizations to create such a district, but I fully support the idea of cultural and historic districts in communities