TAX CAPS

Library Administrator's Digest, Sep 2004 by Robinson, Charles W

Never underestimate the power of one woman who is a community activist! In my time as a library director in a growing community, it seemed that one community activist, generally a woman in these cases, managed many times to get a new library built in her neighborhood costing millions of dollars in construction costs and hefty increases in the library budget to operate the new library over the succeeding years. This happened time after time, to my delight, generally because the woman had kids who needed library service. Of course, with the way things move in government, by the time the library got built her kids were often in college.

But these activists can often do irreparable harm, as well as good. As I write this, I'm at my summer home in Ocean Park, Maine, where the daily paper reports the progress of a tax cap movement started some months ago by an anti-property tax activist. Granted, the assessments on some property in Maine, especially property near the water, have gone sky-high, as they have everywhere (they make very little new waterfront land), and some apparently see a property tax cut as the solution. The activist secured enough signatures on a petition to put the question on the ballot in November.

What homeowner wouldn't vote for a tax cut? Well, a thinking one, that's who. A tax cap in Maine would do me, a nonresident but a summer home owner, like thousands of other nonresident home and business property owners, significant financial benefit. (Maine has a greater proportion of nonresident homeowners - 15 percent - than any other state.)

But a property tax cut in Maine would be what it has been in other states - a disaster to libraries - as well as to countless other public services, of course. The local paper has already said what a massive cut is in store for the Portland, ME public library.

And in this month's News section note what it has done to the library in Bensenville, IL: early closings, increased fees, a reduced materials budget, a reduced staff and frozen salaries. Well, California libraries know all about that, and it has taken their communities years, some of them, to find ways around the cap, if they have.

People who vote without thinking often find themselves in interesting situations. From an article I read in Governing, it seems that the citizens of Colorado have voted a tax cap which severely limits state tax resources and then subsequently voted approval of mandatory increases of millions and millions of dollars in education aid.

No surprise. With the use of referendum powers, voters may well be all too likely to vote for a drastic cut in taxes and then a drastic increase in expenditures for education.

Politicians are no different, of course. Look at the federal government. A drastic cut in taxes, accompanied by the expenses of a war and national security, has resulted in massive deficits. Local politicians are much the same, offering the carrot of higher appropriations for schools and "no new taxes." Often the difference comes from other services, like libraries. No deficits here, like the federal government. They can't, by law.

I'm reminded of a true story I heard years ago, which occurred when a local library desperately needed more operating money for a new building through a proposed increase in the property tax levy. At a public hearing, a woman rose and cried, "Don't increase my levy. Let the government give you more money!"

Charles W. Robinson

Director Emeritus, BCPL

Editor

goozer@bcpl.net