http://www.nytimes.com/…

In years to come, when the oil-and-gas billionaire David H. Koch attends a gala performance of New York City Ballet or City Opera at Lincoln Center, the building he enters in black tie will bear his name.

Mr. Koch, recently called the wealthiest resident of New York City, has agreed to contribute $100 million toward the renovation of the New York State Theater, which is home to the two companies. His gift will be the largest private capital donation in Lincoln Center’s history and a triumph in a period of growing economic uncertainty.

“They seem to like me there, and I like them, so I think we’ve got a deal,” Mr. Koch, 68, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday from Boston, where he was traveling. “Its obvious that this theater needs modernization.”

“I’ve been going to the New York State Theater for 40 years,” he said. “I can assure you, I would not make a gift of this magnitude unless I was absolutely convinced that the quality of the work was world class.”

Mr. Koch, a major contributor to the Republican Party and supporter of conservative causes, was the vice presidential candidate on the Libertarian ticket in 1980. In 2003 he helped establish the nonprofit Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which supports free-market policies and promotes government spending limits. It split off from an earlier Koch-backed enterprise, now called FreedomWorks, which promotes similar goals.

He’s on the board of directors for both the Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation.

There is just something wrong about all this…

The things that the libertarian movement could do with that kind of money. Assuming McCain/Feingold didn’t exist think of what the Ron Paul or Bob Barr campaigns could do with half that? Or what the Free State Project could do with 1% of it?

It’s one thing for a “libertarian” not to give money to the cause. It’s another to voluntarily give money to the State. Why not buy this theatre? Why not build your own? It’s not like he doesn’t have the money to cover the extra cost.

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