Several communities have signed agreements to fund regional arts and culture through Bravo Greater Des Moines through mid-2008, but the organization is hopeful it will not need support after the end of next year.

The future of Bravo is tied to the outcome of a special election next summer in which residents in Polk, Dallas and Warren counties will vote on whether to impose a 1 percent local option sales tax. The increased tax revenues could generate an additional $79.8 million for property tax reductions, capital improvements and quality-of-life amenities, including arts and culture, in the three-county area. The regional sales tax is being proposed by Project Destiny, which is part of the Greater Des Moines Partnership. The vote was originally planned for November, but this summer it was decided to postpone the referendum until next year following the salary scandal at the Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium.

“Given the political climate because of CIETC, there really seemed to be a cloud of mistrust in the community, and we felt that for us to move ahead in this environment would not be positive,” said Cyndi Fisher, a spokeswoman for People for Project Destiny. “So we’re waiting until next summer when the CIETC issues can be resolved.”

Fisher said her group is using the extra time before the Project Destiny vote to build a strong grassroots campaign for the regional sales tax. If the tax is approved in all 45 of the communities, it would not only create a more permanent source of funding for arts and cultural organizations, but it could also significantly boost the amount of money available to these groups.

“From the projections we’ve seen, the public support for arts and culture could triple if these communities pass the local option sales tax,” said Leann Jacobson, Bravo’s spokeswoman.

Currently, Bravo collects two-sevenths of the hotel-motel tax revenues from Des Moines, Johnston, Clive, West Des Moines, Urbandale, Windsor Heights, Ankeny, Altoona and Polk County, minus certain financial commitments already in place for venues such as the Iowa Events Center and Principal Park. Bravo’s cut of these hotel-motel tax revenues added up to about $1.7 million in 2005, and will reach an estimated $1.9 million this year. It is estimated that the 1 percent local option sales tax could generate about $6.8 million for organizations promoting arts and culture.

“If the community is able to put in place a 1 percent local option sales tax to support recreation, culture and the arts, it will distinguish Des Moines in a way that will make it best-of-class among communities its size,” Jacobson said.

If the tax is approved next summer, the communities’ existing agreements with Bravo would dissolve, and tax revenues would start to be collected in the jurisdictions that approve the tax on Jan. 1, 2008. Jacobson said this would free up the hotel-motel tax money that the eight cities and Polk County have committed to Bravo, bringing that money back under their discretion to spend as they see fit.

According to former Bravo chairman Steve Zumbach, his organization may retain an advisory role with the regional authority that would oversee how proceeds from the local option sales tax would be spent on arts and recreation.

Bravo was created in November 2004 to replace the Des Moines Cultural Alliance. Its goal was to restore funding to venues in Greater Des Moines such as Living History Farms and the Science Center of Iowa that had suffered from budget cuts in 2002 and 2003. Bravo is a public-private partnership, funded in part by private donations from individuals and groups such as Winefest Des Moines.

A large portion of the Bravo money is invested in its 15 member organizations, but a smaller portion is reserved for grants to smaller non-profit organizations that support arts and culture. In all, Bravo funded 37 organizations last year, and Zumbach expects that number to climb this year.

“We’re off to a good start,” Zumbach said. “We’ve almost restored funding for these larger organizations to the 2002 levels, and we’ve reached out and started funding smaller organizations in the community. But with more money, we could do a better job at helping these small groups, and at the same time, enable the larger groups to provide even better service than they’re already providing.

“What it really comes back to is that quality of life is a key economic driver, and that communities that have good programs for recreation and culture and the arts will create a community where people want to live and prompt companies to relocate and grow in those communities.”