Overseas trip or arts spending at home?

Laura Leslie puts Mary Easley's trip into perspective.

The WUNC reporter writes on her blog Isaac Hunter's Tavern that the $109,000 spent by the first lady on trips to Estonia, Russia and France is a drop in the state budget's bucket.

But it would be worth a lot as arts spending.

Just for context's sake, here’s a few of the House’s proposed cuts to operational program budgets in the Dept of Cultural Resources - the agency that paid the $109K bill:

Basic Grants Program – loses $42K
Grassroots Arts Program- loses $29K
NC Symphony Society – loses $11K
Lost Colony – loses $2500
NC Shakespeare Festival – loses $2500
Quiz Bowl – loses $3000
CSS Neuse – loses $1500
Maritime Museum – loses $1500
Vagabond School of Drama – loses $465
Charlotte Hawkins Brown Memorial – loses $500

Leslie notes that adds up to $94,000 worth of cuts to groups that employ North Carolina artists and cultural experts. Though some may get funding from other sources, she notes most will end up with a net loss from the cuts.