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State Arts Groups Aided by Bies Bill

Rep. Garey Bies and Sharon Grutzmacher, executive director of the Peninsula Music Festival, flank Gov. Scott Walker as he signs AB 107 into law on April 23.

A bill that aids all smaller entertainment venues in the state was signed into law at a ceremony in Madison with Gov. Scott Walker on April 23. Sharon Grutzmacher, executive director of Peninsula Music Festival, started this bill with the help of Rep. Garey Bies.

“I have heard from quite a few other organizations, the Association of Wisconsin Symphony Orchestras, of course, has been watching this closely. Arts Wisconsin has been watching it closely. I’m sure that there will be dancing in the street and ticker tape parades,” Grutzmacher said.

The bill relates to a non-resident entertainer tax, the threshold for which hasn’t been changed since the law was enacted in 1987.

“If you came to our great state and performed or played sports and you made $3,200 or more in the calendar year, you had to have six percent of your payment withheld, or you had to place a six percent surety bond with the state,” Grutzmacher said. “At the end of the year it appeared on your W-2 or 10-99, and you had to file taxes in the state of Wisconsin to see if you could get it back. The amount of $3,200 as a cap has never changed even though inflation and everything else has. This dinged 80 percent of my orchestra.”

At a meeting of the Peninsula Arts and Humanities Alliance last February, Grutzmacher brought up the non-resident entertainer tax to Bies.

“So Garey and I talked, and he introduced the legislation with co-signers that would increase the cap to $7,000, and would no longer include travel expenses,” Grutzmacher said.

She said the new cap will mean a huge reduction of accounting and paperwork for her organization and many other arts organizations around the state, as well as at the Department of Revenue, which was in full support of the bill.

“For once it’s actually a paperwork reduction act for the government,” Grutzmacher said. “It means that, basically, 80 percent of my orchestra just got a six percent raise. The best thing, it really, really helps the small organizations that were getting hit by an inordinate amount of paperwork. I was very, very excited about this because it’s huge for the Peninsula Music Festival and it’s huge for a lot of small arts organizations in Wisconsin.”

Grutzmacher was unable to testify when Bies introduced the bill on Aug. 6 of last year because it was opening night of the 61st season of the Peninsula Music Festival, but she was glad to be there when Walker signed the bill into law.

“I’m actually pretty proud of this one,” she said. “Next I’ll try and take on the sales tax on ticket sales. I think we’re only one of five states in the country that charges taxes on nonprofit admissions. That’s another one that’s a beast. That one may be a little harder.”