OK, I'll bite and I stand corrected:
* Just because the arts are not filling your potholes does not make them less valid or important. By your argument, we should eliminate our firehouses and let our parks go to pot while we're at it.

COMMENT - Not quite, my point is that potholes, police and education are basic things people pay taxes and expect govt to do. When we have so many holes (Mr Adams crisis) in the infrastructure that we have no money to fix and need to create a tax to remedy, I don’t feel increasing art funding is proper. The pattern has been to neglect things people want and then take any surplus for less important things like state-sanctioned arts groups.

* Arts organizations are backfilling services (music and arts education) that have been de-funded over the past several years.

COMMENT - CoP had a surplus of $30M this year and there is nothing stopping them from giving it to schools for arts training instead of helping Mr Gerding build his eponymous theater.

* The city is backing an Armory loan of $10.6 million, not $35 million.

COMMENT - I am still unclear why we are doing this. When they were in the Newmark, they had a hard time making budget. So now we expect them to make loan repayments on a larger building?

* The show was sold out for most of its run. Capitalism succeeds, while access was provided for various ages and income groups, and PCS takes another step toward paying off its loan. How is this a problem?

COMMENT - Hate to break this to you, but half the high schools and community theater groups in the country do West Side Story and Cabaret on a regular basis. Why did we need a $35M building to showcase these threadbare productions?

* The city is backing an Armory loan of $10.6 million, not $35 million.

COMMENT - The $28 million project will be financed by a $4.6 million loan from city urban renewal funds (tax payer money); a $10.6 million loan from U.S. Bank (guaranteed by CoP); $2 million in historic tax credits from the bank; and $8.6 million worth of "new market" tax credits. Tax credits mean there is that much less money being paid for schools and police. IT si almost all paid for with tax proceeds.

Moreover, based on City Hall’s record with things like the Tram, whole SoWa project and Civic Stadium, my guess is we are seeing the tip if the iceberg in liabilities – unless you can tell me of a recent city project that came in close to estimate.

As far as economic benefits, if you want to wage that battel, then let's build Nike or Intel a factory and give it to them tax free. I'd guess you'd get a lot more return for your $ that way. I am hard-pressed to buy an economic development argument from anyone in government. I mean we trotted out the same old tired arguments to build a pro baseball stadium (Civic Stadium was a guaranteed money-maker by Vera) and convention center hotel. They never pan out.

In conclusion, and I'll leave you alone, my issue about two points:
1) Govt-sponsored art is not necessary and usually happens to those who are friends of those in govt.
2) Priorities - We seem to be able to do art, baseball stadiums, trams, subsidies for $500K condos without new taxes. Yet to fix potholes, get better schools, more jails, repair bridges or the sewer system, we need to raise new taxes or fees. The dichotomy is stunning.