We had local elections in my neck of the woods last Tuesday, and many folks in a county adjacent to ours were stunned that voters rejected an increase in property taxes that would have modernized and increased a county library system for the first time in something like 50 years.
The need was certainly there, but the tax hike they were seeking — and this during a still-recessionary time in our region of the country — was a major thing. It would be like someone with $200 a month health insurance getting a new insurance quote and discovering he would now have to pay more than $700 a month.
Okay, my math in that analogy may be a bit faulty. But the way it actually would have worked for this library tax increase was this: The current tax was 8.7 percent per $100 of property evaluation; the voters were being asked to increase that to 25 percent per $100 of property evaluation.
Granted, the library was struggling to keep their facilities operational and their technology up to par. Granted, public libraries are a really important, really good resource for every community.
But the point was, they were asking for a huge increase to add new buildings as well as maintain and upgrade current buildings. And all that with a recession going on, unemployment high with some folks literally living on unemployment benefits.
Yet library officials were thunderstruck and trying to understand why voters rejected the increase by a 59-41 percent vote total.
Isn’t America a wonderful place to live? Isn’t it always fascinating to see that the “dumbing down” of our nation involves not just politicians and bureaucrats — but educators and librarians, too??