REAGAN ASKS CONGRESS FOR 8.6% CUT IN ARTS BUDGET

WASHINGTON — President Reagan asked Congress Wednesday to slash the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts next year by 8.6% bringing it down to $144.9 million. At the same time he renewed an annual request to eliminate the $21-million Institute of Museum Services, which helps financially strapped museums cover operating expenses.

The Reagan budget message for the arts for fiscal 1987 comes as no surprise. Three weeks ago similar numbers for federal arts cutbacks surfaced.

Already the endowment has taken out of its budget the standard 4.3% for domestic-program trimming under the Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing law. This brought the fiscal 1986 budget, which began Oct. 1, down from $165.6 million to $158.5 million.

Reagan’s proposed cut for the Institute of Museum Services, which aids more than 600 museums nationally, would leave the agency with enough money for only a small staff.

Larry Reger, director of the American Assn. of Museums, said this is the fifth year Reagan has undertaken “the charade” of trying to eliminate the museum services agency. “I am confident that Congress will reject his proposal, as it has every time in the past,” Reger said.