Hall County Supervisors say Stuhr Museum is the only museum in the state that receives nearly all of its funding from the county. As county officials begin to plan this next years' budget, they say: enough is enough.
The museum has been on Hall County's payroll since the 1960s.
"There was a vote from the people of Hall County that voted not a particular sum of money or particular mill levy, but to fund the maintenance of Stuhr Museum at the beginning when it was first built.
But he says the Stuhr Museum has come a long way since then.
"It has grown way past what anybody ever thought," Schuppan says, "from a one building institution to the acres and acres out there."
Schuppan says that growth has required an even stronger reliance on the county for funding dollars.
"We got $850,000 from property taxes last year, and $10,000 from that lodging tax," Stuhr Museum Executive Director Joe Black says.
That $10,000 was supposed to go to the Grand Island/Hall County Convention and Visitor's Bureau funding.
Visitor's Bureau Executive Director Renee Seifert says that $10,000 goes a long way.
"Our funding is used for two big things," Seifert says. "One of them is marketing our city and our county, for visitors, for conventions, for the ag market to bring in new shows and new events ag-related."
Seifert says another cut, like last year, would make it difficult for them to continue that marketing at the same level.
"It would affect the type of marketing that we're doing, as well as the type of financial incentives, the amount of financial incentives we could also offer," Seifert says.
As supervisors begin discussing this next year's budget, they say it's time for a change.
"Last year they took some from the Convention and Visitor's Bureau money and put it in there, but obviously we can't just keep doing that, so we need to figure something else out," Schuppan says.
Schuppan says it's impossible for the county to continue supporting the Stuhr Museum as it previously has, long term.
The Board of Supervisors has already scheduled a meeting with Stuhr Museum and Convention and Visitor's Bureau representatives for later in May to discuss the possible budget changes.
