Another day, another story about how folks in Olympia are considering cutting public art funding—maybe entirely—because of the state's $5.1 billion budget shortfall.

But say we slashed all of the state's funding for public art, just disappeared every single penny. What would that get us? Only $3 million, or less than one one-thousandth of the money we need to close the budget gap.

Where else could we look if we're looking for real money? Try the $6.5 billion in tax breaks Washington State is giving away this year alone. Here's a graph of some of the biggest tax breaks—aka tax loopholes—from my story this week:

A loophole benefiting the cosmetic surgery industry will cost the state twice as much as public art funding this year.

But in Olympia, cutting public art funding entirely is a more realistic possibility than ending the state subsidy for facelifts. Makes perfect sense!