A group of accordion fanatics in Texas aren't happy with Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake.
This coming weekend is the International Accordion Festival in San Antonio, Texas. The Festival is subsidized by the National Endowment of the Arts, an independent agency of the federal government pegged with dishing out cash in the form grants to support the arts.
Last year, the NEA gave the Accordion Festival $35,000. Thanks to Congressman Flake, the festival only received $30,000 in government coin this year.
As Gwen Rivera, the festival's director, told New Times yesterday, the festival -- which has a budget of $150,000 -- is feeling the cuts.
See our story on the festival here.
She credits Flake with the cuts to her budget after he grilled Rocco Landesman, chairman of the NEA, during a U.S. House Appropriations
sub-committee meeting earlier this year. Flake wanted to know why -- given the current
realities of the U.S. economy -- the NEA should give funds to certain
groups that, according to him, are "a bit tough to justify."
Flake specifically singled out the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the International Accordion Festival.
"Those kind of grants lend themselves to ridicule," Flake said at the time.
If you ask us, that's because the federal government spending taxpayer money on things like accordions and mimes is ridiculous -- but we want to know what you think: should the federal government subsidize an accordion festival?
Cast your vote below.
