Photo by Pianoman75

Guess who’s in the money? Montgomery County has got a lot of what it takes to get along. According to the Washington Post, MoCo will post a 7% hike in spending — that would be $4 billion over 6 years — to boost their physical campuses, from classrooms to clinics to boring offices to fiber optics to laser telescope command stations. Alright: That last one is made up. But so is this 4 billion dollars! As it happens, Montgomery County is still reporting an operating budget shortfall of some $600 million. Never you mind. These schools aren’t going to build themselves. And these jobs aren’t going to, uh, provide themselves. So MoCo is borrowing substantial coin to support new projects at a time when interest rates are low and appetite for construction work is real hungry.

“‘[Schools] are cheaper now, and people want to build them. It’s like a no-brainer,’ said Superintendent Jerry D. Weast,” the WaPo records. Like totally! This is the sort of liberal economics that friends of mine like Matthew Yglesias are always expounding: Bad times often represent good times for spending, and spending often means a way out of bad times. What’s the downside to paying $30 million less on the usual cost for building a school — in this case to replace a school built in the 1940s with narrow halls or whatever — leaving enough left over for an elementary school, or a laser telescope command station?

Debt, ostensibly, is the problem. Not exactly crushing debt, but definitely rising debt: The official debt service-to-county revenue cap of 10% has been pushed to around 11%. Defenders of advanced spending can say they’re doing it for the children: Over 6 years, county spending on schools will rise 17%. Which is kind of a lot.

» You already read that Nevin Kelly Gallery is closing. And you read all the way at the end of the post that the gallery’s backers are seeking opportunities at “pop-up” galleries to continue to show art work? Alright, smartypants, but did you read Jessica Dawson’s story for the Washington Post on the pop-up art scene? Dawson writes: “One-offs forge dicey synaptic connections in the public mind: They reinforce the ‘art as decor’ paradigm, divorcing artists from their highest calling — creating work that challenges social and political norms.” Oh, you read that? Cool, you’re good then.

» Ever get a letter from these douches at Mann Bracken? I got a notice about a goddamned $30 debt I owe to Blockbuster Video from around 8 years ago that I absolutely refuse to pay. When I lived in Austin, I was a faithful customer at Eye Love Video and I would trade apple juice (you see, I worked at Spider House) for late fees with a guy at Eye Love (who just happens to write music for the awesomely successful Explosions in the Sky). Anyway, Maryland is suspending Mann Bracken from practicing as a debt collector, probably because they send you letters on ridiculous legal letterhead. And I never shopped at Blockbuster. Douches.