How did New Jersey (whose governor is proposing to cut state arts funding completely) distribute a $3 million supplemental fund for the arts this year? The state’s Secretary of State – with “bare-bones application forms and no written evaluation process” – unilaterally decided how it would be spent. Regena Thomas “conceded the applications were not measured against one another or ranked in any formal way. Rather, the winners – 33 out of 195 applicants – were chosen based on input from legislators and her own personal interests. All but $217,000 of the $3 million announced in January went to organizations located in Democratic districts.” A month after the grants were awarded, Governor McGreevey “called for the elimination of all cultural funding and the dismantling of the agencies that distribute that money.”