I think everyone has seen the commercial on TV with an adult with two children. He asks the first child if she would like a pony. He gives the first child a toy pony and then brings out a real pony for the second child. The look on the first child's face is one of betrayal.

Locally and throughout the state, we are feeling betrayed by the recent actions of the House to not only cut the budget of the Georgia Council for the Arts but to totally dissolve the organization.

We are asking the Senate to reverse this decision.

This is not as simple as it may first appear.

Yes, the state must balance the budget. Yes, there are major issues like Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, education, prisons, transportation and others that are the lion's share of the budget.

Yet our legislators looked at a very small budget that will not make that much difference in meeting the state's budget needs but funds that do mean so very much to the entire state. Every community has been served through the arts programming and arts education through small grants from Georgia Council for the Arts through their regular granting program and the Grassroots Program.

Let's give our legislators the benefit of the doubt in thinking they were still providing some sort of funding stability through the meager $241,000 they are proposing to send to the Department of Community Affairs to administer for the arts. They are, in fact, with this decision placing approximately $870,000 in federal funds in jeopardy according to a letter from the National Endowment for the Arts if the Georgia Council for the Arts is eliminated.

Maybe legislators also were erroneously thinking that the new agency developed in House Bill 291 a couple of years ago which set up the Georgia Arts Alliance would the answer. This agency would not only be able to accept state funds but private funds. This bill, while a good one for arts education, would not serve the total state arts organizations and artists. Beyond that, it has never been developed with a board or state funds allocated to this nonprofit organization.

Another kicker is this agency would not be eligible for these federal funds since it is not a state arts organization per se. It is my understanding that the only federal funds that would be extended would be directly to the State Arts Council, which in our state is Georgia Council for the Arts.

There is also an additional loss of federal funds if the Georgia Council goes away: South Arts, located in Atlanta and serves our Southern region, would also lose $100,000 in federal funds.

What message does this send to our state, to every state in the nation, that Georgia is the only state that devalues the arts, the only one without a state arts council? What message does it send to industry thinking about relocating to Georgia? What economic impact will be lost by eliminating this arts agency?

Will the Arts Council in Gainesville go out of business because of this action? The Arts Council depends on revenue source from many areas mainly from individual members, corporate support, foundation support, rental income, ticket sales, interest on investments, as well as government grants from the Georgia Council for the Arts.

We also receive and administer a grant program provided by funds from the Georgia Council for the Arts for a 10-county region, The Grassroots Arts Program. It certainly will make a strong negative impact if we lose these funds especially in these times when revenue is down in all of the areas mentioned above.

We have cut our budget to the and losing Georgia Council for the Arts would create problems not only for The Arts Council, but for other arts organizations in Gainesville as well as throughout our 10-county region: Banks, Barrow, Cherokee, Dawson, Forsyth, Franklin, Gwinnett, Hall, Hart and Jackson continues.

Staff members will be lost across the state, art programs will be cut and some of the arts organizations will go out of business. We could lose an entire generation of students who would not have access to the arts.

It is time for our community to speak out and let our legislators know how important the arts are in the lives of our communities. These funds impact our schools, museums, galleries, theatre, music, dance, film, etc. (all of the performing, visual and literary arts.)

The decision is now up to the Senate to rectify the mistakes made last week in the House of Representatives in their rush to balance the budget.

Gladys Wyant is executive director of The Arts Council, Inc. of Gainesville.