ROANOKE, Va. — A state legislator is seeking to gain status as a state agency for the Virginia Museum of Transportation, which would make the Roanoke attraction eligible for state funding.
The website Cardinal News reports the museum is already recognized as the commonwealth’s official transportation museum, but that distinction carries no legal status that would provide funding. So State Sen. John Edwards (D-Roanoke) is sponsoring a bill that would grant the transportation museum the same status as state-funded facilities such as the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Science Museum of Virginia, and the Virginia Museum of Natural History. Separately, Edwards is seeking a budget amendment to provide $2 million in annual funding, more than double the current annual budget of the museum in its current status as a privately operated, non-profit organization. The additional funding would allow the museum to hire more staff, make improvements, and add new programs.
“I think there’s a good case to be made and I’m going to make it,” Edwards told the news site.
I visited the VMT in 2009 and enjoyed it greatly, as I did the O. Winston Link museum next door..
You mean the VMT is a private museum? I assume the OWLM is too.
Be careful what you wish for, or don’t. Government money always comes with strings attached.
My recommendation would be to run as far away from government money, in this case state money, as you can. “The additional funding would allow the museum to hire more staff, make improvements, and add new programs.” The caveat here is that the funding will be at the whims of the state. This is where the strings come into play and who controls the strings. As a private organization, the museum has control over its programming. As a vessel of the state, that control is ceded to bureaucrats that may, or may not, have the best interests of the museum in mind.
Discretionary and luxurious use of T/P dollars.
Pork