If Costa Mesa truly wants to exemplify its status as a City of the Arts, it’s going to have to put some money behind the mission.
That was the message delivered this week to city leaders by members of the Arts Commission, who’ve been planning an overhaul of the funding and prioritization of public art as the city fulfills the lifespan of its inaugural arts and culture master plan and begins drafting a road map for the next five years.
Their recommendations run the gamut, from establishing a public art fund to an ordinance that could increase funding from the city’s cannabis tax revenue and impose a 1% public art fee for publicly funded capital projects — and possibly private ones — costing $500,000 or more.
Shepard Fairey’s “Welcome Home” mural, on the back of Costa Mesa’s Baker Block apartments, is a notable piece of public art some in the city would like to see replicated elsewhere.
(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)
In an annual report to the City Council Tuesday, commissioners shared their hopes for how art-related programs and expenditures might be funded in the 2026-27 proposed budget, to be unveiled in a May 12 study session ahead of public hearings in June.
Arts programs in Costa Mesa are primarily funded by the commitment of one-half a cent from a 7-cent-per-dollar tax on legal retail cannabis business, amounting to roughly $230,000 annually.
But expenditures on programs identified in the master plan are much higher, coming in this year at a budgeted $416,990, causing the city to backfill the difference with general fund revenue.
The disparity has sparked a debate about whether the cannabis tax was intended to be the sole funding source of all arts programs citywide, or an additive revenue stream to pay for programs and installations not otherwise funded by the city.
That debate resurfaced Tuesday, as commissioners expressed the challenge of keeping dreams and plans within the scope of a too-small funding footprint and shared a vision of what might be possible if the city considers expanding its budgetary commitment.
Commission Vice Chair Allison Mann explained the group’s priorities for the future include funding a consultant to help update the city’s arts and culture master plan, first developed in 2018.
“The city is capturing an enormous economic value from its arts identity while investing very little to sustain or grow it. This is an imbalance that we’re asking you to help correct.”
— Arts Commission Chair Alisa Ochoa
“Post-COVID the landscape has shifted how residents engage with arts and culture, how organizations operate and what our community needs from its public spaces,” Mann told the council. “This update is our opportunity to reflect those changes.”
In addition to seeking to double the portion of the cannabis tax set aside for the arts, commissioners recommended the city draft a public art ordinance to create a mechanism for funding projects in the future.
A rough framework shared by commissioners showed how the cannabis tax-funded portion of an arts and culture budget could be expanded from its 2025-26 level of $237,300 to $428,400 in the next fiscal year and $468,400 by 2027-28.
Commissioners imagined an expansion of the city’s arts grants program from its current budget of $12,500 to $75,000 by next year and $100,000 the year after that. A utility box art program, as well as free park performances, the city’s artist laureate program and Costa Mesa’s annual ARTventure would also be allowed to grow with an increased commitment.
Given that Costa Mesa is in the process of exploring whether to place a ballot initiative before voters in November seeking to raise the city’s transient occupancy hotel-stay tax, commissioners suggested a portion of that revenue could be used for the arts.
They are also recommending an arts specialist position, whose salary ranges from $89,460 to $119, 892, be paid out of the general fund, rather than depleting the cannabis revenue then funded as a shortfall.
Commission Chair Alisa Ochoa told the council an enhanced outlay would be worth it, citing statistics from the nonprofit Travel Costa Mesa that tourism has an estimated economic impact on the city of $1.1 billion, generating as much as $50 million in state and local tax revenue through tourism-related spending.
“The city is capturing an enormous economic value from its arts identity while investing very little to sustain or grow it,” Ochoa said. “This is an imbalance that we’re asking you to help correct.”
Officials questioned why there seems to be no standalone budget for arts and cultural programs, outside of the cannabis tax set-aside for implementation of the master plan.
“This idea that the cannabis tax is the only source of revenue, I don’t think that was the council’s intention,” Councilmember Andrea Marr said. “To have staff time, commissioner stipends and some of these things in this very narrow pool of money, then to say that’s all the funding that’s available comes as a surprise to me.”
Mayor John Stephens agreed.
“It’s just an understanding that’s crept in over the years and it’s now become commonplace but it wasn’t anything we ever voted on,” he said.
It’s unclear whether the establishment of standalone arts and culture funding might make it into the proposed 2026-27 budget, was slated for review by the city’s Finance and Pension Advisory Committee (FiPac) Thursday ahead of this upcoming Tuesday’s council study session.
