More than 60 local arts organizations that receive state funding &mdash; from the Kansas City Symphony and the Lyric Opera to Paul Mesner Puppets and the Kansas City Repertory Theatre &mdash; will hardly feel the effects of large Missouri budget cuts announced this week.</p><p>&ldquo;These cuts are not going to stop any of our grants,&rdquo; Beverly Strohmeyer, executive director of the Missouri Arts Council, said Thursday. &ldquo;The cuts are bad, but not as bad as they could have been.&rdquo;</p><p>Almost every nonprofit arts group in town receives its state funding through the Missouri Arts Council, she said. And although the Arts Council is taking a big cut &mdash; its $10 million budget, which was cut $1 million earlier this year, is now being slashed an additional $4.4 million through June 30 &mdash; the council has a trust fund of about $23 million that it can dip into. The fund comprises earnings from an income tax imposed on nonresident entertainers and professional athletes who play or perform in the state.</p><p>&ldquo;After talking with the state budget director, this cut was not a surprise,&rdquo; Strohmeyer said. &ldquo;We were kind of geared for it. We don&rsquo;t like it, but we understand what&rsquo;s happening.&rdquo;</p><p>On the positive side, she said, these cuts are actually &ldquo;withholdings&rdquo; for the next two quarters of the fiscal year, which means if the budget picture improves, the governor always can release the funds back to the arts council.</p><p> But Cynthia Siebert, president and founder of the Friends of Chamber Music in Kansas City, said the arts council over the years has had to spend a lot of its reserve money just to keep its annual commitments to arts groups.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important and it&rsquo;s critical and all of us know that everyone&rsquo;s hurting, but it&rsquo;s still just survival,&rdquo; Siebert said. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t stabilize the arts to do that year after year. To get beyond just survival, there needs to be some (funding) cushion so arts groups can take some risks, which is what the arts should be about.&rdquo;</p><p>Local arts organizations said they expected to feel the full impact of the cuts after next July, when a new state arts council budget rolls around. </p><p>The council will have about $8.8 million as its starting point, Strohmeyer said, compared with about $11.3 million last year. And that smaller pot could mean fewer or smaller grants.</p><p>&ldquo;We all just find a way to get by,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Over the years, we started tracking volunteer hours that these groups utilized. When funds go down, volunteer hours go up and board members go to work, and they make up the difference.&rdquo;