After automatic spending cuts required under the Budget Control Act of 2011 took effect March 1, CPB received confirmation that its 2013 appropriation was trimmed to $421.4 million, a 5 percent reduction in the original amount, $445 million.
CPB, which had anticipated deeper cuts, revised its budget for the fiscal year, and notified stations of the changes in a March 4 memo. Local stations’ Community Service Grants will be slightly higher than those calculated last fall.
“Reflecting our continued concern about the potential for additional budget actions in FY 2013,” CPB President Pat Harrison told station execs, CPB will base this fiscal year’s second Community Service Grant payments on an appropriation level of $421.4 million, which will incorporate a recalculation of the first CSG payment at $421.4 million. CSGs should be ready by April 1, she added.
By statute, the 5 percent cut will be allocated across all CPB functions (numbers rounded): System support, $26.7 million appropriation, will receive a $1.33 million cut from what the $445 million appropriation would have provided; administration, $22.3 million, drops $1.11 million; television station CSGs, $222.8 million, drops $11.1 million; television programming, $74.3 million, drops $3.7 million; radio station CSGs, $69.3 million, drops $3.5 million; radio programming acquisition grants, $22.8 million, drops $1.1 million; and radio programming, $6.9 million, drops $347,000.