IN cuts public media funding, PBS Michiana loses 10% of its budget

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- The new state budget, approved last week, eliminates its funding for all PBS and NPR outlets in Indiana.

PBS Michiana, WNIT, stands to lose 10 percent of its budget. President and General Manager, Amanda Miller Kelley, said she found out Thursday after previously believing the funds were safe in the state budget.

"There are 17 [PBS and NPR stations] and all of us are down to zero. It went from $3.65 million a year of state investment into public media, to zero across the board," Miller Kelley said. "We had no warning, this came at us out of nowhere, and it was as though we were all hit by bricks. We're stunned by it. We will move forward, but it's going to be a challenge."

There was a $2.4 billion shortfall in the budget, but public media were believed to be safe. The cut goes into effect July 1.

ABC57 sat down with Jeff Rea, president and CEO of the South Bend Regional Chamber. He's also the host of a weekly show at WNIT called "Economic Outlook," which tells local stories about jobs, development, and projects.

He said this cut is more of a political statement than an effort to remove wasteful spending, since public media funding is also on the chopping block at the national level.

"Disappointing that the state didn't recognize the important impact it has on the local communities and those local programming pieces, and instead, got caught up in that national narrative," Rea said. "First, we'll have to deal with this at the state level, we're probably going to have to think about this at the national level too, because my guess is that the federal government will cut the funding as well, unfortunately."