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We’ve never quite understood the notion of government-funded arts. The arts in and of themselves are good, but the government should not be using our tax dollars to pick the winners and the losers. They rarely use the funds to put on, say, a production of Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ because people — by and large — will pay to see a production of Shakespeare. What they do fund, however is atrocious ‘art’ like the blasphemous ‘Piss Christ’ or the Virgin Mary covered in animal dung.

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In the name of ‘art.’

It’s also an example of government spending that can be cut, and cut it Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did. To the tune of $32 million. What he actually did was veto the funding from the state budget.

Eric Deggans, NPR TV critic, is not happy about that.

More from The Art Newspaper:

Florida governor Ron DeSantis slashed more than $32m in art and culture grants from next year’s state budget, effectively eliminating most of the state’s financial resources available for the arts. The legislature had already approved the funds in the form of two grants: $26m for one that supports cultural and museum programming, and $6m for another for building projects.

The cuts are a small part of the nearly $1bn in line items that DeSantis vetoed before signing the budget last week, but art and cultural institutions across Florida say losing those grants will pose an immense challenge.

“It’s a huge disappointment and a quandary,” Michael Tomor, the executive director of the Tampa Museum of Art, told The Tampa Bay Times. “We are all unclear as to why this happened.”

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Because DeSantis is going to balance the Florida budget.

Yet they never do.

Because this is what they do.

We’re sure he’ll manage.

Bingo.

Exactly. If there’s a product people want — be it groceries or art — they’ll fund it.

It’s only fair.

If we don’t show fiscal responsibility now, the cuts that come when the economy collapses will be far, far harsher than jus the arts.

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Terrible artists that usually have a blatant political agenda.

Probably correct.

Nailed it.

‘Devastating’ — we think Eric doesn’t understand what that word really means.

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Which proves our point — this wasn’t paying for a Monet exhibit or Shakespeare production. It was going to ideological groups.

And it’s refreshing to see a governor who understands this.