Who pays? Who benefits? Who decides?

This paper was presented at the symposium dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the publication of Patrons Despite Themselves: Taxpayers and Arts Policy (Feld et al. 1983), held by the Association for Cultural Economics International, Boston, June 2008. It considers alternative means of providing indirect tax-based state support of the arts, such as the use of tax credits as opposed to tax deductions for charitable contributions, matching grants, and support applied to specific projects. It also considers the problem of broad-based changes to tax policy that have unintended consequences for arts organizations.