Controlling costs?

Raising tuition?

Why are those ideas never the first out of the gate?

Unfortunately, this line of thinking isn't limited to the West-side of the state.

After successfully cramming a tax down the throats of the three surrounding counties to pay for the Detroit Zoo, the Detroit Institute of Art of getting on the tax bandwagon.

First, they are expanding their Inside/Out program to get face time in the local papers, then they hit up the county commissions to fleece the taxpayers with a stealth election.

Now ask yourself this, does anyone who admits their own mismanagement in a local paper even deserve to take someone else's money?

"Despite the pleasing number of tickets sold, "Rembrandt" -- like almost any big traveling show -- did not make money. Even with what Beal calls "very generous" sponsorship support from the Cracchiolo family of Grosse Pointe, he estimates costs -- including transportation, insurance, publicity and installation -- exceeded revenues by about $500,000.

"That's why we raise money all the time," Beal says, "and why all museums, no matter how wealthy, raise money all the time -- to finance exhibitions."