Lawmakers Approve 10-Year Extension For Arizona Historical Society

By Steve Shadley
Published: Friday, April 25, 2014 - 9:53am
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The Arizona Historical Society has been given a lifeline. State lawmakers approved a ten year extension for the cash-strapped program before they adjourned Thursday.

Some lawmakers wanted to give the historical society only two years to get its financial act together, but in the end the organization got another decade to raise more private funding. 

Leonard Marcisz is a member of the society’s board of directors. He said among other things, the society must rebrand itself.

"Will our citizens going forward be as interested in going with bricks and mortar museums as they might be in access to history through digital media on the internet?” Marcisz said.

Last year the historical society received about $3 million in the state budget, that’s about half of what it got before the recession in 2007. He said the society will apply for more grants in the future. It manages eight museums across the state and owns a ghost town.