Look here for a story that ought to get any taxpayer’s blood boiling. The Post-Dispatch reports that the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles wants $100,000 to help it pursue some of its programs. Rather than, say, earning the money based on services provided to consumers, and rather than raising the money from appreciative patrons, the Centre’s first priority was to ask the city government for the desired funds. As Dick Sacks, the head of the Centre’s board, put it, "The obvious thing is to go to your daddy[.]" Sacks also said that the request for taxpayer funds was not because the Centre was "broke" or "in trouble," but rather the move was just "good fiscal planning."

I’m sure that many people (and businesses!) would be thrilled if they could figure out how to pursue their pet projects by having their government forcibly extract the funding from their neighbors. But to suggest that this sort of extortion represents "good fiscal planning" is especially sick at a time when so many of the people who would be compelled to bear those costs are already struggling to avoid foreclosure, or fill their gas tanks or grocery baskets.