Taxing success
January 3 2012
Picture: TAN
Over in the US, the mayor of Boston, one Thomas Menino, has come up with a typically bonkers political response to a succesful arts institution: tax it. He wants to massively increase the 'fees' paid by the Museum of Fine Arts to the city in lieu of taxation. As a charity, the museum is exempt from city taxes. But the city gets round this by asking for a seperate 'pilot fee'. Now, Mayor Menino, wants to raise the fee from the current $55,000 to $1,025,000 in four years time.
In The Art Newspaper, the director of the MFA, Malcolm Rogers (above), points out that the museum brings untold benefits to the city, all for free:
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), is one of the world’s great cultural institutions, whose impact on the quality of life of its city is immeasurable. But the generosity of spirit that built this great museum is being buffeted by a surprising entity—the City of Boston itself—which has put in motion a plan to drastically increase the “voluntary” contributions cultural institutions make through its payment in lieu of taxes (Pilot) programme. When civic leaders look to cultural organisations as a source of revenue, rather than as an invaluable resource for the communities they serve, it has dire implications nationwide.
Since the MFA opened its doors on 4 July 1876, it has been almost entirely privately funded. Unlike our peer museums—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, which receive millions of dollars in financing from their cities—we are not funded by our municipality.
Rogers speaks with some modesty, for it is largely under his 17 year directorship that the museum has become one of the world's great cultural institutions. Oddly enough, Mayor Menino is a trustee of the MFA. He must be the only museum trustee in the States proposing to make his museum a million dollars worse off.
Last year I had to fly to New York, a city I dislike, to look at a possible Van Dyck. Thanks the MFA, I chose instead to fly to the US via Boston where I stayed for a couple of days, and then took the early morning flight to NY for the day.
