Gipson Speaks on Art, Education at Community Gathering

On Wednesday, Oct. 12, a town meeting was held at the Mid- Hudson Heritage Center to discuss the state’s art policy. Senator Sue Serino and Terry Gipson were poised to attend; however, Senator Serino did not show up.

60 chairs were set up, with 30 on each side in a small but full room. Most of the people seemed to know each other, with the exception of a few people here and there, but the man at the front of the room made everyone introduce themselves so that everyone would feel welcomed and comfortable.

Gipson has a connection with the arts and the art community. He has two arts degrees, a Master’s and a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in Theater with a specialization in lighting. “That was really my entry point into the arts,” Gipson said.

In high school, he began an early interest in architecture but then stumbled upon theater. “High school was where I found I could be an architect and still play around with a lot of other cool things,” Gipson said. “And that just really attracted me to the theater world. I fell in love with it from high school all the way up and through my Master’s degree. I liked working in regional and college theaters. I even got to travel the country and do it.”

Eventually, he went to NYC where he began to work as a Broadway set designer. That was about 25 years ago. One day, Gipson was looking in the newspaper when he stumbled across an ad from an architect looking to hire set designers to design a special project. He applied and was hired on the spot. “My job ended up being to design Planet Hollywood restaurants,“ Gipson said.

A man at the local town meeting asked Gipson what he is going to do about property taxes. “People are fleeing the area because they can’t afford them. What is a better way to deal with it?” the man said.

Gipson answered with an in-depth response. “When I go door-to-door and to public events, I talk to people about what the issue is regardless of their chosen profession,” Gipson responded. “Most people talk about how unaffordable it is to live here in Dutchess County and New York in general, especially homeowners and especially small businesses who own property and that’s because of the high school taxes.” It’s not that anyone argues that the taxes go for a good purpose, Gipson said, but it’s that people are concerned that we are reaching a point that’s unsustainable and they can’t afford to pay anymore.

Gipson speculated that the reason for this is because the state has been slowly backing away from its duties in funding education since the 1970’s. Now, he said, property owners pay a majority of it and it has reached a point where it is “just unaffordable.”

He suggested going back to the way things were in the 1970’s. “Coincidentally or not, in the 70’s when things were working better, people would pay their fair share of taxes,” Gipson said. “Back then, those who made over $1 million were paying a much higher state tax than those today who make that same amount of money. Those who were making over $1 billion which was even more rare back then, were paying significantly higher taxes than that. The reason they started backing off in responsibilities is because they began to give wealthy individuals in New York fairly big tax breaks.” Eventually, he said, the tax breaks reached to the point where the state was no longer bringing in enough money to fully fund education the way it’s supposed to. “The only choice left was for the state to say this is all you can get from us and now you have to go to your local property owners to get the rest,” he said.

Every school is in a different area with various property values around them. “Property values here in Poughkeepsie and around Poughkeepsie are not as high as Rhinebeck and Beacon, and that’s a problem,” Gipson said. “Those schools are getting a majority of the funding from those property owners and what that means is that the value of the property around the school is directly related to the amount of money a school is able to raise.” What this means is that individuals who are growing up in a low-income area are being “subject to a much lesser quality” of education. “That doesn’t make sense especially when you are talking about arts and creativity and trying to inspire individuals to grow and to be imaginative, abstract, and creative thinkers,” he said.

At the end of the meeting, people stayed back to discuss their feelings about the meeting and the guest speakers. One member, Jeff Johnson, attends the town meetings regularly. “I didn’t realize Terry Gipson was an artist in his early life,” Johnson said. “I felt like by attending this particular meeting I got new information which I could add to the information I already had about the situation and the speaker. “

Another member, Anita Kiewra, who is also a frequent member of the town meetings, was particularly excited to attend this one. “I am interested in Terry Gipson’s campaign and what he is going to do with the arts,” Kiewra said. “I feel he is a supporter of the arts and understands what we need.”