Dayton’s arts organizations could see reductions in both operating support and charitable contributions under President Obama’s 2012 budget request, released Monday. The budget calls for a $21.3 million cut to the National Endowment for the Arts, reducing its funding 13 percent to $146.2 million from the fiscal 2010 appropriated level of $167.5 million.

The president’s budget also calls for an across-the-board 30 percent reductions in itemized deductions for high-income taxpayers, including charitable contributions to nonprofit organizations.

The proposed NEA cuts are “devastating,” said Luke Dennis, executive director of Muse Machine, a nationally recognized arts education group that annually serves 70,000 students and their teachers in 10 southwest Ohio counties.

The NEA has given more than $8.8 million to Ohio arts groups since 2007. About half of that went to the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that supports arts groups and individual artists through various grant funding programs.

“A reduction in the NEA could help to jeopardize that funding, which would not be a positive thing ... for the community,” said Ken Neufeld, president and chief executive of the Victoria Theatre Association and Arts Center Foundation.

Arts funding has an average 9.77 percent return on investment, according to a 2008 study by Sonecon, an economic advisory firm that analyzes the impact of government policies.

“The arts mean business for Ohio,” Dennis said. “Seeing a cut like this makes me think maybe that message isn’t getting through to Washington.”

Cityfolk on Monday launched a congressional letter writing campaign against the NEA cuts, according to Kathleen Alter, executive director of Dayton’s traditional arts organization. The group has received past NEA grants for special projects and operating support.

Cityfolk is a membership organization that depends on private donations, so trimming deductions for charitable contributions “has the potential to hit us, as well,” Alter said.

Dayton Foundation President Mike Parks said it’s difficult to predict the long-term impact on charitable giving if Obama’s proposal is enacted.

“I don’t think that the charitable impulse goes away because of a reduction in the charitable gift deduction,” Parks said. “But the size of the tax deduction would have to make a difference on the size of the gift and the extent of a person’s ability to give,” he said.