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

  • Candidate Name: Dustin Gettel
  • Your Municipality: Midvale
  • Elected office for which you are running: City Council District 5

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.
I was in our Drama and AV clubs in high school and took an advanced speech class in college. I credit all three of these experiences with exposing me to creativity that helped shape me into the person I am today.

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.
I think public funding for city arts councils are crucial to creating an open, diverse, and vibrant community.

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.
I would support such a measure as a member of Midvale City Council.

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

5b // Optional, explain why or why not.

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

6b // Optional, explain why or why not.
I think the arts in general can bring a lot of excitement, business, and foot traffic to cities throughout Utah.

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.
I would support this tax if it was fiscally possible in Midvale.

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. 

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 like to find a way to offsets these costs, but yes, I support Midvale City Council and the office of the Mayor getting more involved in creating a Cultural District in downtown Midvale.