According to the Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh's city budget office says that nonprofits such as the Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Symphony, Pittsburgh Opera and Pittsburgh Public Theater will save almost $450,000 in total after the tax cut. The arts tax was 10% before it was halved in 1995; it then dropped to 2.5% for nonprofits in 2004 and 1.5% this year.

Once it's eliminated in 2008, it "will be very, very difficult for any mayor in the future to reinstitute the tax," the Post-Gazette quoted Mark Weinstein, arts council board chairman and Pittsburgh Opera's general director, as saying.

The tax cut should mostly benefit performing arts groups. "The mayor believes the arts are vital to the community and he's trying to help them out the best he can," Ravenstahl's budget director, Scott Kunka, told the Post-Gazette.

Eliminating the amusement tax has long been one of the primary objectives of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council (a 129-member organization that supports and lobbies for local arts groups), according to the paper.