Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events – BGA Policy 2025 Budget Snapshot

Departmental Highlights

Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2024 Budget

• DCASE's total appropriations are down -34.4% from what was originally budgeted in the 2024 appropriations ordinance. However, retroactive changes made to the 2024 appropriations data in the 2025 dataset by the Office of Budget and Management substantially modified the amounts, meaning the 2025 dataset shows a 10.8% increase in DCASE appropriations.
• As with several other departments, DCASE's budget includes a "reserve balance" appropriation from a number of grant funds. This appropriation, which appears in several department's budgets and has been retroactively added to 2024 appropriations data as well, was not used in the previous year's budget at the time of its passage. BGA Policy has reached out to the Office of Budget and Management for clarification of this appropriation's purpose and has not yet received a reply.
• Apart from the new reserve balance appropriation, festival production saw the largest net single-category increase, up $2.9 million (34.1%) from 2024's budget. Pass-through spending to delegate agencies was the next-largest, up $1.9 million (198.7%) from the 2024 budget.
• Implementation of the cultural plan saw the largest net decrease in appropriations, down -$9.8 million (-79.3%) from 2024. A $4 million appropriation for American Rescue Plan investment was completely eliminated.
• A single administrative assistant position was eliminated from DCASE's budget. Budgeted headcount remained otherwise the same from 2024 to the 2025 proposal.
• As of October 28, 2024, when the new ARPA dashboard was made available, DCASE had allocated $34.3 million in ARPA funds, of which $32.3 million had been obligated and $25.3 million expended.

Historical Context

Staffing

A single administrative assistant position was eliminated from DCASE's budget. Budgeted headcount remained otherwise the same from 2024 to the 2025 proposal.

Appropriations

DCASE is primarily funded out of the Special Events and Municipal Hotel Operators' Occupation Tax Fund, which in the 2025 budget proposal funds more than half the department's appropriations.

In recent years DCASE has also been a recipient of substantial pandemic relief funds, which are now declining, but in the proposed budget are more than made up for by increases in local and federal grants.

Largest Appropriations

As with several other departments, DCASE's budget includes a "reserve balance" appropriation from a number of grant funds, and which is the department's single largest appropriation this year.

This appropriation, which appears in several department's budgets and has been retroactively added to 2024 appropriations data as well, was not used in the previous year's budget at the time of its passage. BGA Policy has reached out to the Office of Budget and Management for clarification of this appropriation's purpose and has not yet received a reply.

Apart from the new reserve balance appropriation, festival production is the department's largest 2025 appropriation, followed by outside contracting through the professional and technical services appropriation.

Change from Previous Year

DCASE's total appropriations are down -34.4% from what was originally budgeted in the 2024 appropriations ordinance. However, retroactive changes made to the 2024 appropriations data in the 2025 dataset by the Office of Budget and Management substantially modified the amounts, including retroactively adding the reserve balance appropriation, which did not exist in the 2024 appropriations ordinance. As a result of the retroactive changes, the 2025 dataset shows a 10.8% increase in DCASE appropriations.

Apart from the new reserve balance appropriation, festival production saw the largest net single-category increase, up $2.9 million (34.1%) from 2024's budget. Pass-through spending to delegate agencies was the next-largest, up $1.9 million (198.7%) from the 2024 budget.

Implementation of the cultural plan saw the largest net decrease in appropriations, down -$9.8 million (-79.3%) from 2024. A $4 million appropriation for American Rescue Plan investment was completely eliminated.

ARPA Allocations

The city budget does not typically break down budget appropriations to the programmatic level. However, this year the Office of Budget and Management has made available a new ARPA dashboard and associated datasets that detail the allocations, obligations, and expenditures made towards ARPA-funded programs.

As of October 28, 2024, when the new ARPA dashboard was made available, DCASE had allocated $34.3 million in ARPA funds, of which $32.3 million had been obligated and $25.3 million expended.

The tourism and hospitality recovery allocation has the largest amount obligated but unspent, but is fully obligated, while the artist relief and works fund has the largest balance still unobligated.

ARPA funds must be obligated by December 31, 2024. The city can obligate funds by entering a contract, order for services, or similar award or transaction; by entering into an interagency agreement; by dedicating the funds to certain personnel costs for positions that existed and were filled prior to December 31, 2024; or by using them to cover the legal or administrative costs of ARPA itself.

As of the October 28, 2024 data, the city had allocated roughly $1.9 billion in ARPA funds, of which 91.8%, roughly $1.7 billion, had been obligated.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.