There were two articles of note yesterday in my local paper or record. (For the record that would be The Washington Post.) First, a front page story concerning the sports clothing giant Under Armour and its planned $5.5 billion development in Baltimore. As go these things in 2016 the plan includes more than a billion dollars in public funding, with more than 500 million of that coming from Charm City itself. Question: we know Baltimore ain’t perfect, so can it afford $500 million for such an enterprise?

A smaller but similar article in my local insert describes the fate of the Loudoun Museum.

Last week Loudoun’s Board of Supervisors voted to provide $156,000 in funding to keep said museum afloat for 2017. Apparently this relatively small piece of the Loudoun budget always creates a stir, as I suppose it should. (In general I think we should question all government propping of inefficient industries, no matter how small.) Interesting that this time there is a caveat to the museum’s funding: that members of its board of trustees must each raise $3,000 next year.

Yup.

What a great grinchy trick. Make the self-righteous museum “trustees” pony up some money themselves. I love it.

Guffaw, guffaw, cry those who assume that museums, art festivals, and nature parks somehow just magically fund themselves. I think it’s brilliant, though, to have such clauses in all government contracts.

Here’s something to consider for 2018: make the county’s share zero and the trustee minimum equal to the total budget divided by the number of trustees. In other words, what everyone else in the world has to do.

Might think about that one for Baltimore too.