Opinion

Moss column: The case for Playhouse support

By Bill Moss, Published: December 30, 2013

Draining the donor base

Another reason to use tax money to support the Playhouse has to do with local philanthropy. For two years the Playhouse has been sucking all the oxygen from the room when it comes to charity.
The McGrady family was a "blockbuster" donor in 2012 — over $100,000 — and it is close to that this year, the state representative said.
"Giving to the Playhouse is not within my normal giving pattern," McGrady said. "I wouldn't normally do that, because I'm much more about other issues. I'm a significant supporter of some other organizations. Every nonprofit fundraiser in town will tell you that the Playhouse is consuming a lot of money from donors, meaning donors are telling other nonprofits, 'Gee, I would give you more but I've really upped my game for the Playhouse,' and that's certainly true of my family and I.
"But at the same time, you go, 'Why did you do that, Chuck?' The reason you do it is because if the Playhouse were to go down you're talking about a significant hit that this community would take. The amount of economic activity that relates to the Playhouse is really significant. And if people don't recognize that they've just got their heads in the sand."
Local government units contributed substantially to save the Playhouse in 2012.
After it voted to pull the plug on funding, the commissioners reversed course and preserved the $100,000 it had pledged. The city of Hendersonville gave $100,000 and the village contributed $125,000. But instead of sustaining that level, all three dropped the Playhouse like a radioactive potato. This year, Henderson County grudgingly gave $20,000 to the YouTheatre. The Hendersonville City Council gave $10,000. The village zeroed out the theater that brings 100,000 people a year to the old barn across from Village Hall and sends some hundreds of those to the only retail block in the village boundaries.
On Dec. 12, after an appeal by Hart and board member Robert Danos for local support, Councilman Jimmy Chandler made a motion to grant the Playhouse $24,000. When five council members sat on their hands, the motion died for lack of a second.
The anemic level of support from local taxpayers looks very bad to foundations and large corporations, Playhouse officials say.
"In their mind, according to their criteria, they felt like there was a disconnect between the information in our grant proposal in what we were saying (was) the impact we were having on our community, and how that was reflected in how our community (local government) specifically was supporting us," Hart told the Village Council. "They also look to see that there is a history of support."
Our history is spotty at best.
It did not have to be this way.
In 2012, the Legislature adopted a local bill that authorized Henderson County to raise the occupancy tax by a penny and direct the proceeds to the Playhouse. A one-cent increase in the bed tax, paid not by local residents but by tourists from out of town, would have raised about $260,000 a year for the Playhouse. The local delegation — McGrady and state Sen. Tom Apodaca — served up the solution on a silver platter. Commissioners fumbled it away. Now, the part of the law that directed the proceeds of an extra penny to the Playhouse has been repealed.
"The (lodging) sales tax option was one that was put forward, and Sen. Apodaca and I did what we were asked to do in terms of giving the county that option," McGrady said. "Ultimately, the county chose not to use that option. OK. But the issue remains that the Playhouse has got to have county and city support, local government, if it's going to be able to garner support from the state and from other nonprofits and foundations. The first thing that other big donors, major corporations, are going to ask is what level of local support do you have? When they're sitting there and the county and the town aren't putting much on the table, that sends a message that just can't go around."