Dear Friend of the Humanities,

As you surely have already heard, Governor Dannel Malloy’s budget has called for a $500,000 cut in funding for the Connecticut Humanities Council, and so far, the legislature’s Appropriations Committee has not restored any of those funds. The Council recognizes that these are very tough times for our state and that budget cuts will be inevitable, but a reduction of this magnitude will be a life-changer for us and for you.

As partners and friends of CHC, you can all imagine the impact this will have. Our ability to support humanities programming and organizations around the state will be seriously weakened. There will certainly be fewer grants to museums and other heritage organizations, fewer reading programs in libraries and schools, and reduced professional development activities.

We continue to make our case to our state senators and representatives, but now is the time for you to add your voices. We have made it easy for you to help. Just click on this link and we will take you to our website where you can find:

• contact information for the members of the appropriations committees who are responsible for approving our budget
• the text and graphics that I used in my recent testimony
• some other talking points that might be useful

Use any of these items that you find useful but it is essential that you speak in your own words. Tell these legislators and the Governor that you understand the difficulty of the choices they face, but give them examples of what will be missing from your work, your community and from our state if CHC’s funding is dramatically reduced. If you could send a copy of your letters and e-mails to our office as well, that would be terrific.

State budget decisions will likely be finalized in the next two weeks. It is critical that we demonstrate solid support from around the state NEXT WEEK.

Make a call. Send an e-mail.Write a letter.

Thank you.
Stuart Parnes