Kelly Hayes
The Senate and House are differing in just how much money they want to send to the St. Petersburg Holocaust Museum.
The House’s proposed budget stuck to lawmaker’s requests for $750,000 in non-reoccurring funding. But, the Senate, in sticking to its original proposal, is only offering $500,000, according to its first budget offer in Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations.
In requests filed by Sen. Ed Hooper (SF 1242) and Rep. Nick DiCeglie, (HB 2227) both ask the state for $750,000 directed to the Holocaust Museum. The museum successfully received that same amount through an appropriations request last year.
If the Senate offer is accepted by the House, then the original request will take a $250,000 cut. The anticipated $750,000 from the state was calculated to account for about 32.6% of the museum’s total funding, with another 0.7%, or $15,000, coming from local government and 66.7%, or $1.54 million coming from private donors, according to the request.
The St. Petersburg-based museum remembers and educates visitors about the Holocaust, genocide and human rights. The Florida Holocaust Museum has one of the nation’s largest collections of digital resources, including interviews with Holocaust survivors, photographs and educational resources.
It also reaches more than 150,000 people annually, according to the appropriations request.
The appropriations request allocates $75,000 of the state funding for the executive director salary and $258,000 for staff salaries.
Of the remaining funds, $218,000 would be used for expenses related to artifact, testimony and art digitization and indexing, as well as other resources for exhibits, and $199,000 would go to conservation, care and photography of objects and art, speakers, research and marketing.
The Florida Holocaust Museum receives support from regional and local universities, school districts, arts organizations such as Creative Pinellas and the African American History societies, museums, police and fire departments, and many corporate and private donors.
The museum, which was founded in 1992 and relocated to its current location in 1998, was named the number one museum to visit in the St Petersburg-Clearwater area by USA Today, according to the request.
