With the state budget falling $27 billion short this year and an even larger deficit projected for next year, Gov. Gavin Newsom is planning broad, deep cuts across California government. But while he recommends state public entities as a whole shrink by nearly 8%, some agencies and programs would be hit harder than others. 

Among the sectors disproportionately affected is the arts, with his revised budget proposal introduced last week showing a 38% decrease in funding to the California Arts Council, the main way the state supports the arts. He would also gut the $12.5 million previously promised to the Equitable Payroll Fund, which was created to help small arts companies comply with so-called gig-work bill AB5, and send all those monies back to the general fund. 

“A cut of this size would greatly impact our ability to be more responsive to the needs of the cultural and creative communities of our great state,” CAC Executive Director Danielle Brazell said in a statement to the Chronicle.