MACON, Ga. — There's a lot of new announced increases in the budget for public safety, beautification projects and the fight against blight, but Mayor Lester Miller says he's looking to make some cuts.
One of those is funding for some "outside agencies," including Atrium Health Navicent and museums.
Mayor Miller says the county just doesn't have the money in the budget to fund Atrium Health Navicent and museums in town, so he's proposing cuts that can save the county roughly $230,000.
The mayor says the outside agencies receiving the cuts include the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, the Tubman African American Museum, the Museum of Arts and Sciences, the Macon Arts Alliance and Atrium Health Navicent. All those mentioned received $50,000 last year, except the Macon Arts Alliance which received $30,000. With Miller’s proposal, that funding will drop to 0 from the general fund.
"This is a speed bump for us. This is a bump in the road, but we’ll make the best of it," said Jim McLendon, executive director of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
Miller says he let the museums and organizations know about the cuts earlier this year.
"We read the tea leaves and knew this was likely to happen," McLendon said,
"So we’ve pretty much prepared for it in our budget," said Harold Young, executive director of the Tubman Museum.
Many of these museums' and outside agencies' budgets are already tight because of the impact of the pandemic.
"The high schools haven’t been able to tour so that has really had a negative impact on our revenue," McLendon said.
Now, they’re trying to make up for this added loss. Harold Young, executive director of the Tubman, says the museum plans to come up with creative ways for fundraising. For example, Young says they're holding an event called Jazz on the Plaza on June 6 to help raise money.
The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame says they’ve decided to delay some programs and exhibits.
"We did have some plans to expand some of our interactive exhibits. We had some plans to expand our educational program," McLendon said. "We’ll have to really look at the numbers hard and fast to see what impact long range is going to be."
But McLendon says he’s hopeful this is a temporary cut.
"I think they do understand that we're partners. This is not a gift to us. We feel like we earn the revenue and the support we receive from the Macon-Bibb consolidated government," McLendon said.
Mayor Miller says he's looking to pull from the county's American Rescue Plan money to help these museums and also boost tourism. He says, so far, they haven't received guidelines on how to spend the money.