re: About The EBRP Library System & It's Property Tax

I thought the same about the library that it was just books and computers for kids to use.

There's actually a ton of useful resources for a professional. Their digital library is enough to keep me occupied without ever setting foot in the actual library.

There's online training (many of it counts as CPE), free audiobooks and digital book borrowing, access to certain resources that you couldnt get as an individual without paying thousands of dollars, etc. They even have decent telescopes for borrowing.

Now realizing that probably 90% of taxpayers never take advantage of the library so the 10% are benefiting from the huge sums of money being put into the budget.

Could they run the same quality operations on a lesser budget? Probably so, like any government run organization.

But I could have saved money every year if I just used the library for my learning rather than spending $ on Audible, Kindle books, online classes.

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And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why organizations fight so hard for a dedicated millage. The library's money ain't getting redirected to a damned thing

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I mean that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

I posted this in the other thread, but the city-parish 2024 operating budget includes $71 million for the Library Board of Control vs. $107 million for BRPD. I get that it’s a dedicated millage, but in what world does that ratio of funding make sense?

I also get that the $71 million wasn’t all FY 24 tax revenue, it was them drawing the fund down (presumably for projects). So let’s use their $55 million in sources for 2024 - that still seems crazy to me in the context of the rest of the city-parish budget.

It takes a real moron to be against the library.

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I remember going to the Goodwood branch when I was a kid.

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my grandmother lived across the street. When we’d get dropped off there for a weekend, she’d march us to the library with our cards and make us check out books to read so we wouldn’t be pestering her all day LOL

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The library system here is amazing. A lot of people who think it’s just books would be amazed.

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I used to take my daughter (no pics) weekly when she was younger.

The downtown branch was usually full of homeless on the computers.

lol. Those were the days.

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Since we could arm every man, woman, and child in EBR with a kindle and unlimited subscription to everything readable in the known universe for less, the advantage in brick and mortar libraries is what?

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You realize that not everyone has access to the internet, right? There are many lower income folks in BR that don’t have home internet. Many schools use google classroom for assignments and therefore internet access is vital. Also, your handout kindles are useless without the internet.

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Since we could arm every man, woman, and child in EBR with a kindle and unlimited subscription to everything readable in the known universe for less

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The part that you're not mentioning; is that reading on a kindle sucks. Physical books >> Kindle. People need fewer screens, not more.

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Got a library near my house. There is hardly anyone there during the week. Occasionally they have an event there but even then there is not that many cars in the parking lot. But we need millions to renovate a building that is not that old.

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Admittedly I’m not familiar with most of the branches, but the one I use (Main Library on Goodwood) is busy enough on many weekday afternoons that the parking lot is 3/4 full and tables are hard to come by. I’ve always found a spot, but it can be a hunt. I’m sure it’s not like that at every branch.

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No new libraries saves construction dollars and requires a smaller staff.

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There are 14 libraires in the parish for 450,000 people. That's 1 library per 32,143 people. That's too many.

A city like Austin has 20 libraries for 980.000 people, so double the people and only 6 more libraires. Houston has 36 library branches, Dallas has 28.


People get upset if you speak out against BREC or the library for having too much money. But it's true. They have more money than they need for a city of this size. They need to invest more in digital and less in building new locations.