Kera Birkeland // Republican // Utah House District 53
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How have the arts, culture, and/or humanities impacted your life?
- I grew up in a house as one of six children. I was the least athletic child in a house full of athletes. The piano was my place to shine. I started playing at the ag of eight. My husband and I have also adopted a child (and soon another) with a different cultural background. It's important to us that he has the most exposure in the most positive and real ways possible.
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Utah's humanities and arts employ 123,000 Utahns, provide $4.4 billion in earnings, and $13.2 billion in sales. This is a larger economic impact than agriculture, mining, and real estate. Do you consider the arts and cultural sector an economic driver in Utah?
- Yes
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Fiscally responsible government investment in the arts and humanities (including humanities and arts education) means to me:
- Ensuring the investment will come at a profit for the tax payers. If we are using their funds, we need to be careful how we spend it.
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I support the following legislative items:
- Grants to be used for operations (jobs) as soon as possible
- Keeping emergency loans open to nonprofits
- Protecting the RAP taxes so that money granted to cultural organizations doesn't get repurposed
- Increasing availability of loans to cultural businesses (non-profit and for-profit)
- Fiscally responsible government investment in arts and humanities organizations.
- Development of cultural districts
- Facilitating partnerships between tourism and culture.
- Reducing regulations of creative businesses.
- Capital investment (in museums, performance/concert halls, studios, galleries, nonprofit office space, etc.).
- Percent for public art programs, which optionally designate 1% of government capital costs for public art
- Allowing municipalities to set design standards
- K-6 Students should have increased exposure to arts and humanities education
- 7-12 Students should have increased exposure to arts and humanities education
- I support the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program which puts one arts specialist in most elementary schools
- I support the POPS (Professional Outreach Program in the Schools) which sends 13 professional arts organizations to all UT school districts
- I support the iSEE (Informal Science Educational Enhancement) which sends 10 professional science, zoological, and natural history organizations to all UT school districts.
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Anything else we should know about you?
- I hesitate to support our local RAP tax, due to my community’s high tax rate. We are a bedroom community and residents are tired of constant increases. Also, I don't see it being implemented in a proper way within my county.
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