Shutting Down Hospitals?

Here's the meat of an editorial from Press of Atlantic City.com:

[T]he council's announcement last week that a total of $225,900 in grants would be doled out to individual artists in 2008 was ... well, troubling - as all discretionary spending is in these tough times. Remember, the state is talking about cutting charity care in hospitals, which haven't been receiving their fair share in the first place. The next budget may force even more hospitals in the state to close. Some state parks might be shuttered. These are tough, tough times. And, of course, Gov. Jon S. Corzine has proposed fixing it all with a wildly unpopular and complicated toll-hike proposal.

So - again, at the risk of being considered philistines - it rankles to see an Essex County artist get a $12,000 state grant so that she may continue her work doing "very detailed, obsessive colored pencil drawings on rice paper, which are cut out, sewn into, and then embedded into vibrantly colored encaustic paintings (pigmented wax and resin painted with the use of a heated palette)."

Hear, hear. I love the arts, but let's put the discussion in context. When Governor Corzine threatens us with shutting down hospitals, we should also be hearing about colored pencil on rice paper and $350,000 for honorary certificates to New Jersey vets.

I'd add that under Assemblyman John Wisniewski's gas tax hike -- a proposed alternative to the toll hikes -- this $225,900 would be paid for by selling 793,000 gallons of gas at prices 28.5 cents higher than they are today. The certificates for vets would come from increased taxes on 1.25 million gallons.

I'll go one further -- if artist fees were increased the way Governor Corzine wants to increase tolls, this artist would get $96,000 for her colored-pencil-on-rice-paper-in-encaustic-paintings work.

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