Despite Threats, Smithsonian's 2011 Budget Stays Largely Intact

Remember all that hemming and hawing, less than a month before the Wojnarowicz-Gate, pulled-art story broke, about how the Smithsonian was going to have their annual budget slashed to oblivion and would be forced to start charging a weirdly-specific entrance fee of $7.50 per visitor? Turns out that seems relatively all show, as details of their appropriation from Congress have now been released. While there have been some cuts (according to Bloomberg, these are largely “a small reduction for salaries and expenses”), it seems far short than the dire situation predicted a few months back.