re: Bill on StG before Municipal Affairs Committee tomorrow (5/9)

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Maybe without all the StG money thye city will be forced to trim down the largest department in their government (The library) and start funding important things.

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Nope. They could spend 0 dollars on the library system and the parish would have 0 more dollars in its general fund and that tax money collected would just sit there. The voters agreed to a dedicated property tax to fund the EBR library system. That money cannot be used for anything other than funding the library system the voters approved it for. All the city/parish does is collect the tax and then write the library system a check for the portion of the taxes the voters agreed it is legally entitled to; the library system gets tax dollars directly from collected millages, not from a budget item in the city/parish budget. Just like the COA. Of course, nothing says the full tax must be levied. Tax issues at election are simply the voters saying that they agree to be taxed up to a certain maximum millage "X" set by the language of the tax measure for the purposes of funding "Y" for a period of the next "Z" years, all set by the language of the tax measure. The taxing authority (in this case, the Metro Council), though, actually levies the tax and puts the people on the hook for paying it and can decide every year to levy from 0 to the full millage that passed the election. They don't ever levy less than the full amount the voters agreed to, though. Just like the COA situation.

That's why you see brand new libraries and facilities everywhere. The voters agreed to a huge millage and the library system doesn't really need that much money, but they have that much money, so they spend that much money. In it's defense, though, the library board seems to at least spend the money to give the citizens the best they can get. The new main branch is a really impressive facility. The downtown branch, well, everyone fricks up every now and then, right? Just like the COA.