Background:

Cultural Access Program.

Counties and cities are authorized to establish a Cultural Access Program (CAP) that allocates funds to cultural organizations providing programming or experiences to the general public. The funding must be used for a public benefit that generally relates to increasing access, outreach, and opportunities. The primary purpose of a qualifying cultural organization must be the advancement and preservation of: science or technology, the visual or performing arts, zoology, botany, anthropology, heritage, or natural history. Funding for the CAP is raised through a sales and use tax or a property tax (counties with a population over 1.5 million cannot use property tax). The tax must be authorized by a majority of votes through a proposition submitted to a general or special election.

Any county or contiguous group of counties are authorized to set up CAPs. A city may establish a CAP if the county in which it is located forfeits its option to create a program, or did not propose a CAP to voters prior to 2017.

Public School CAP. Each CAP must also include a public school cultural access component that increases access to cultural experiences for public school students. In a county with a population over 1.5 million, every public school must be provided with specific benefits to increase student access to designated regional and community-based cultural organizations. The level and frequency of the benefits should be scaled based on percentage of students at the school receiving free or reduced-price lunch. These benefits must include:

transportation for students to attend at least one program annually;
a centralized service for cultural organizations to coordinate opportunities for students;
coordination with organizations to maximize student access and increase cost efficiency;
preparing and maintaining a readily accessible guide to opportunities;
the development of tools to correlate activities with school curricula; and
partnerships between schools and cultural organizations.

Funding Allocation. When voters approve a CAP for a county or city, the program must reserve funds for three areas before allocating to designated organizations. The three areas are startup costs, basic program and administrative costs, and public school access costs. The thresholds for cost allocations, requirements for eligible organizations, and guidelines for allocation differ by county population. The following table outlines these differences.

Allocation and Guidelines	County Population
Allocation and Guidelines	Under 1.5 Million	Over 1.5 million
Program and Administrative Costs	County determines the amount of funding to reserve for program and direct administrative costs.	Up to 1.25 percent of total costs may be allocated as administrative costs.
Public School Cultural Access Program	County determines percentage of total funds reserved annually for the required public school component.	10 percent of funds must go to this program annually.
Remaining Funds	All remaining funds go to the entity designated by the county to allocate among eligible cultural organizations that meet guidelines and criteria established by the county or city.	Regional Cultural Organization 70 percent of funds are distributed proportionally to eligible regional cultural organizations based on combined annual revenue and attendance. Community-Based Organizations 30 percent of funds are distributed to eligible community-based cultural organizations or a community preservation and development authority.
Report Public Benefits	Organizations that receive funds for a project must report the public benefits realized to the designated entity.	Funded regional cultural organizations must provide annual reports of public benefits provided and participation, as well as projections for the following year.