"Every moment of one's life, one is growing into more or retreating into less." - Norman Mailer

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Library Free Louisville

The Louisville Free Public Library recently was told by its patrons, the citizens of Louisville, that they did NOT want to support an increase in the occupational-tax to fund the library. It would have meant a "levy of two-tenths of 1 percent on the earnings of all workers in Jefferson County, and also on the net profits of all businesses in the county." That means that "a worker earning $38,000 a year would pay $76 a year to the library district." It would have "guaranteed that the library system an income stream and end its dependence on metro government for funding" (data from the Louisville Courier-Journal: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007710240814 ).

According to Joe Reagan, president of Greater Louisville Inc. (the metro chamber of commerce), Louisville spends only $24 a year per capita on the library system, compared with $66 in Cincinnati, $46 in Lexington and $42 in both Indianapolis and Nashville.

Well, on November 6, 2007, we Louisvillians apparently decided that we were just fine with stacking up sub-par with other cities of like size in our region. Once again, 66% of us voters decided for us all that we want Louisville to continue to uphold that lovely image of Kentucky as an illiterate, backwater, backwards, snake-holding, gun-toting, toothless, shoeless, tabacky-spitting, bourbon-guzzling, horse-gambling state. So now Director Craig Buthod and the rest of the Board of the Library Foundation have to decide what's "essential." So, like, does the library need all THREE volumes of Das Capital? Does your kid really need to read ALL the Nancy Drews? Come on, you know they're just gonna make the movie anyway...

More info here: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071108/NEWS01/711080413

Or, see how Jefferson County voted by precinct: http://datacenter.courier-journal.com/elections/2007/general/librarymap.png
Needless to say, my precinct voted NO at a rate of 65% - 75%. So WHY is the new library being built in our precinct????

Sucks ASS. And so does my precinct.

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1 comment:

Elizabeth said...

I wish this were surprising.

If only these tax increases were marketed as a decrease in something else, like maybe bids for a professional basketball team, or the mother effing Summit.