Public Funds Go To Waste

A Department of the Interior bill that allocates millions of dollars for a variety of projects also gives a Kentucky theater company, that already has millions of dollars in assets, $150,000 of taxpayer money.

Passed by Congress for fiscal year 2006, the Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2006 dishes out $669.5 million to hundreds of projects supposedly relating to the environment and its agencies.

Somehow, the Actors Theatre in Louisville Kentucky received a piece of the pie even though it’s difficult to imagine how it could possibly qualify for the public money. The theater company is a nonprofit, but the premier charity evaluator, Charity Navigator, has given it a poor overall rating while listing its net assets at more than $23 million.

An average ticket price to the Actors Theatre in Louisville is $35. Some of the plays include Shakespearian classics while others have risqué themes like Bad Dates, a play about a single mom who jumps back into the dating scene desperately searching for a man. This week’s opener, Crowns, celebrates African-American women and their hats.

Stephen Laffey of Human Events calls public funding of this operation the tax payer rip-off of the week and a slap in the face to taxpayers across America.