When I said I would avoid stimulus money like the plague, it is because the money will come with strings attached that could make accepting it more harmful than if no money had been offered. The problem is, however, that once money is offered, all businesses must devote unlimited resources to the creation of grant applications making every conceivable effort to obtain as much of the free money as possible. Otherwise they risk being driven out of business should their competitor receive more stimulus money than they do. So with just the announcement of a stimulus program, the basic risk/reward transaction that is characteristic of a free market is damaged.

Along the lines of strings attached to federal grant money, I was wondering if anyone has had any issues with this? I have heard of one locomotive in NY state I believe where roumer has it, the boiler work part of the project was forced to go to some maybe minority/woman owned shop friendly to the local politician who arranged the deal. However the problem was that though the shop held an R stamp, riveted boilers with staybolts were completely foreign to them. I heard that they drilled out a lot of plate work and then did the bending only to find that holes for stays didn't line up. Many of the problems really stemmed from the shop they were forced to get do the work.

One thing I heard also worked its way into this stimulus package was that federal money had to go to union contractors. Though I have had good experiences on jobs dealing with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, is their a union shop qualified to do our type of work out there?

Adam

There are a lot of smarter things to spend federal grant money on than steam engines. Some museums should think about other capital projects that could not otherwise be funded. Bridge repair, track rehabilitation, grade crossing work, building renovation, interpretive exhibits (design and construction), museum buildings, and even car barns are just a few of the things that come to mind that would be a good application of federal funding that would result in permanent improvements, generate jobs, and increase the effectiveness of a lot of our organizations.

Yes Randolf, I couldn't agree more. Add to that please the general concept of capacity building, which generally encompasses many of the projects you listed. Capacity building allows an institution to derive a long term benefit from windfall support rather than a flash in the pan.

I think at least two good points have been raised in the last couple of days:

1) Role of government in supporting museums. There is a relationship between culture and society that goes back thousands of years. In the traditional support structure for museums, there is an acknowledgement that museums are not profitable business models but deserve support because they help define a society. Museums are traditionally viewed as a governmental-type service. 30 years ago, a typical American museum derived 25 - 30 % of its operating support from government. (Yup, that same but much smaller government of yesterday.) Today that number has dwindled to 1 - 2% and most museums have been forced to adopt a business model that allows them to recoup most of their operating costs from the gate (or at least try.) It looks good to accountants and some politicians, but it has restricted access to those who can afford. Incidentally, when there was a larger real-dollar government contribution to museum operations, those funds were generally awarded by competitive process rather than appropriation. That's not possible in the current environment because the programs have been changed to fund really narrowly defined projects and/or the funds actually allocated are a small fraction of what they once were.

2) Coburn amendment passed with a wide margin suggesting museums have not done a good job of communicating their worth. I think there may be some truth in this but it ties back to point 1 where many museums are recovering a much larger portion of their operating costs from gate receipts so there is no longer the same perceived need. I think it is also a reminder that museums and arts organizations need to work harder to speak with one voice rather than individually as the arts, zoos, then aquariums, and somewhere in the bleachers, the history museums speak one at a time.

--Richard

I forgot to mention in the last post that in my somewhat limited experience with Federal funding I have never seen anything in the rules that restricts a project's bidders to union shops however union scale wages (Davis Bacon or State Prevailing Wage) are often required. On past projects, we've been allowed to require minimum qualifications for bidders, and to write very narrow specifications. Without intending to offend anyone who may have been involved, letting a contract to perform repairs on a locomotive boiler to someone that had never worked on a riveted boiler sounds like a problem with the project specifications, not the grant or appropriation.

--Richard

I am pleased to report that the ban on funding museum projects via the stimulus bill was removed by the House-Senate Conference Committee. See the attached Advocacy Alert from the American Association of Museums (full disclosure--I work for AAM). Thanks to Richard for sharing the original issue with RyPN, and thanks to any and all who took the time to contact their legislators on this issue.

_______________________________________

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF MUSEUMS
Advocacy Update


Congress Completes Work on Economic Stimulus Bill; Museums Allowed to Compete For Funds

Early this morning (Friday), the U.S. Congress unveiled the Conference Report for H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, setting the stage for final passage by the House and Senate, expected to occur in the next few days.

Museums, zoos, and aquariums had initially been barred from competing for any funds in the Senate-passed bill. Zoos and aquariums were barred from funds in both versions. In reconciling the two pieces of legislation, Congress is set to adopt the following language:

"SEC. 1604. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this Act may be used by any State or local government, or any private entity for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, or swimming pool."

"Museum supporters should be very pleased that we were able to mobilize a massive field-wide effort to prevent a funding ban on museums in this bill," said AAM President Ford W. Bell. "However, the fact that Congress - and specifically the U.S. Senate in its February 6 vote - initially saw fit to exclude museums from funding shows that we have a lot of work to do in making the case for museums." He added: "It is also disheartening that zoos and aquariums will be prohibited from competing for most economic stimulus funds made available through this bill. Zoos and aquariums have tremendous public benefit for environmental education and wildlife conservation, and contribute greatly to our nation's economy by spurring tourism."

Museums employ more than a half-million Americans, spend an estimated $14.5 billion annually, and rank among the top three family vacation destinations. Visitors to cultural and heritage destinations stay 53% longer and spend 36% more money than other kinds of tourists.

Museums have been very hard hit by this recession, laying off workers and cutting back on services. Members of Congress must be made aware of the economic impact that museums make on their communities, and we must TELL CONGRESS the impact we have every day - employing workers, buying goods and services, and educating communities.

The bill also includes the following funding:
National Endowment for the Arts - $50 million to preserve jobs in the non-profit arts sector.

Smithsonian Institution - $25 million for repair and revitalization of existing facilities.

National Park Service - $146 million for critical repair and rehabilitation projects, $589 million for energy efficient retrofits, the preservation and repair of historical resources within the National Park System, and other critical infrastructure projects, and $15 million for historic preservation projects at historically black colleges and universities.

National Science Foundation - $100 million for improving instruction in math, science, and engineering.

Community Development Fund - $1 billion to bolster critical community services and infrastructure needs, to be administered by local governments.

Erik you beat me to it! I was just about to post the same thing.

Good too that our moderator decided to unlock this thread, as these are the things that we should be discussing.