CHARLESTON GAZETTE MAIL: JUSTICE’S BUDGET WOULD CUT FAIRS, FESTIVALS FUNDING

By Lori Kersey, Charleston Gazette Mail

West Virginia’s fairs and festivals and other arts programs would have their state funding stripped away in a budget proposed by Gov. Jim Justice.

Justice’s proposed budget calls for a $4.3 million cut to the state Division of Culture and History, which includes the West Virginia Commission on the Arts and the State Historic Preservation Office.

The budget cut would affect all of the agency’s $4.3 million in regular lottery funding, which “contains funding for various items such as fairs and festivals, symphonies, Historic Preservation Grants [and] many other items of this type,” Mike McKown, state budget director, said in an email Thursday.

The Division of Culture and History also has $4.8 million in its general revenue budget and receives other special and federal revenue, McKown said.

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