Taxman

All I want for Christmas is The Beatles – complete.  Since I have been waiting all these years for that to pop up on iTunes I get the feeling that if I’m really, really nice between now and 25 December the Fat Man might squeeze down my new chimney and provide me with the goods.  Which, of course, got me thinking about the Detroit Symphony.

One of my favorite Beatles tunes is Taxman. Great groove, great tune, fantastic lyrics, cynical as all hell.  Taxes have a particular resonance in this country, mainly because of the fact that most citizens of the USA are under the mistaken idea that the American Revolution was fought over them.  As anyone who actually studies the Revolution will tell you that is not true.  The war was fought over taxation without representation, a subtle but tremendously important distinction.  The colonists had no issues in paying taxes – everyone paid taxes, it was just a way of life.  But what got them really steamed up was having no legal representation in front of the Crown, a right that their fellow English back home enjoyed.  Next thing you know there’s tea in Boston harbor.

Fast forward to this last week and an interesting article crossed my desktop.  It seems that there is a movement by a State Representative in Michigan who is trying to put funding for the DSO into a bill designed to underwrite the Detroit Zoo and the Detroit Institute of Arts.  There is a small tax which has funded those last two institutions that has proven to be successful, and there is a movement to extend and expand said tax.

In 2008 the great State of Minnesota voted on the Clean Water, Wildlife, Cultural Heritage and Natural Areas Amendment to the constitution.  Even in the political climate that was prevalent during that election cycle this amendment, which raised the state sales tax by some miniscule amount to fund environmental initiatives and a small arts endowment, almost went crashing down to defeat.  The arguments against it were neatly summed up by the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper –

“That case was weakened when the Legislature added arts and cultural heritage funding to the mix. This was a case of piling the load too high, what the legislators call “loving it to death. Arts programs can certainly make a case for state funding, but they are not irreplaceable in the sense that our lakes and wetlands are. Plus, a theater or a museum has the added burden of proving its worth in the marketplace.”

Ouch. This from a leading newspaper in the land of  “you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting another Liberal Arts college.”  But there you have it – the Arts are not irreplaceable.  Funny enough, I’ve known several people who lived under the reigns of Stalin or Mao who would tell you the exact opposite, but I guess that capitalism has made us soft.  Be that as it may…

The problem between funding environmental initiatives and/or institutions such as the DIA or Detroit Zoo, as opposed to something like the DSO, runs deeper than we suspect, and it deserves a look.  Any fundraiser will tell you that it’s much easier to get money out of someone if you’re going to put their name on the side of a building.  Bricks and Mortar fundraising has a lot more sex appeal than Endowment fundraising.  Fund a new wing for your local Major Art Gallery?  As long as the name is in size 252 type font something can be arranged.  Want a brand new habitat for the big cats at the local Zoo?  That has the added advantage of involving cute furry animals (which could tear your face off with one swipe, but we don’t mention that in our fundraising brochure).  Fund an endowment to pay the salaries of a lot of people who come to work dressed in clothes that are remnants of the Victorian Age?  Suddenly it’s much harder to close that deal.

But that is the least of the worries.  The perception of the differences between a Zoo and an orchestra are rooted in reality.  A Zoo will let you come and enjoy what they provide whenever they are open.  It so happens that the Detroit Zoo is open everyday of the year except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.  Price?  $11 per adult, $7 for children.  That is unless you are a member.  A new family membership is $79 which comes with all sorts of charming xtras and, of course, free admission to the Zoo anytime.  Compare that to your local orchestra – we are only open very, very select hours.  We are closed  a majority of the days of the year.  Price? Just for giggles I checked on a concert of the DSO scheduled for mid-January.  Average ticket price is around $44.  No perks, no free parking – we’ll just sell you that seat.  For the price of two decent tickets to see the DSO you can get a year membership for 2 adults and all the children living at that address.  I would wager good money that this is the ratio that can be found between the Zoo and the Orchestra in almost every Metropolitan area of the USA.  Matter of fact I know it is, since I’m a member of the Minnesota Zoo.

If you happen to have children the Zoo will be a much more palatable option than the orchestra.  You can go to the Zoo on your schedule, the kids can run around and get all sorts of sugary crap, ooh and aah over the animals, etc.  At the orchestra most of that is definitely frowned upon.  Goodness, unless it’s a dedicated kid show I wouldn’t recommend the experience for most kids under 14.  Most of the kids on my block wouldn’t last past the overture.

I could go on and on but why belabor the point?  What I know for sure is that every poll taken in 2008 said that if the Cultural Heritage part of the Minnesota amendment stood by itself it would have gone down to a flaming defeat.  This in arts-friendly Minnesota.  Cultural Heritage tax proposals tend to embolden the opposition who thinks that the Arts aren’t important to a healthy social system.  And even if the proposed tax passes in the Detroit area I worry that it would just paper over the very real systemic issues that the DSO has been dealing with.  Just throwing more money at it does not a solution make.

That’s one for you, nineteen for me.

3 thoughts on “Taxman”

  1. If I could have anything I want for Christmas it would be a concertmaster job. Unfortunately, I don’t think any level of being good between now and the 25th is going to get it. =P

    On the whole zoo/orchestra thing, I was the anomaly; the kid who preferred to sit and watch the orchestra over the zoo. I always dreaded going to the zoo, but have exciting memories about going to the symphony.

    • Oh, I was an anomaly as well. Wonderful memories of attending the Buffalo Phil in the ’70s. But I was an only child and my parents were dedicated to the music – that made it all easier.

      • Ah, that would help. I was 3rd born…and there were eventually 11 more children after me. (No, we’re not Catholic, Mormon, etc. All one family too)

        I’m kind of the “trailblazer” in music for my family.

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