re: Sid Edwards continuing to push his plan

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Where are you getting that from?

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Public records.

You failed to include a picture of Falon Brown.

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Holy shite, BR's Library budget is almost 75% bigger than Nashville's?

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And Nashville has an awesome library system with that budget.

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You created that graphic from “public records”? What public records?

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The public ones. It's 100% accurate. Challenge it....dare ya :)

Nashville Public Library Financials 2023

Capital Budget: $25,287,000.00
Operating Budget: $43,544,000.00

Total Budget 2023: $68,831,000.00

Dallas Public Library Financials 2023

Operating Budget: $43,489,000.00
Capital Budget: $36,000,000.00 (bond issue 2023)

Total Budget 2023: $79,489,000.00

Dallas Public Library System is for Dallas city proper only. All surrounding cities have their own library system (Lewisville, Frisco, McKinney, Flower Mound etc…)

I’ll give you New Orleans.

The libraries in East Baton Rouge Parish that have been built including the downtown location were chosen by the voters in surveys prior to the first tax ballot and subsequent renewals of the tax.

The downtown location replaced an existing structure that was 50 years old and the cost to renovate the building was 90% of the cost of a new updated building with a 50-70 year lifespan.

The facility is well used during the week and it when the discussion of a new facility was brought up the voters who supported the system reminded the library board and the public that the building was on the list of new facilities to be built in the original 1986 tax proposal as well as all additional renewals. This was not a library board building simply because they wanted to build. They built the new facility because it was proposed and was expected as the voters had demanded it.

I don’t know what you mean by we can’t afford what they are doing now. We can and do afford the libraries because they are supported by a dedicated tax millage that has overwhelmingly been renewed each time
it has come up.

Maybe , just maybe the council, mayor, and citizens of the parish should look at why we can’t afford police or whatever else it seems you think we can’t afford. Maybe we don’t need the 600 excess workers. Nashville doesn’t have that many. Dallas doesn’t have that many. See how that goes?

If you don’t support the library or think the money should go somewhere else well that’s your prerogative. And you will have the ability to express your opinion in the fall when the tax comes up for renewal.

But to just wholesale makeup shite about a system that has done exactly what the taxpayers have asked and demanded of and done it within the millage process shows the stupidity of the council, administration and voters of the parish.

So let’s look at it this way. This board wholesale trumpets Trumps and Elon Musks wrecking ball approach to downsizing the federal government which is just completely eliminate departments, thousands of jobs etc… in the spirit of efficiency and “we can’t afford it” but on a local level want to take the money from a successful entity and add to the “general fund” without looking at why the money is needed in the general fund in the first place.

Maybe they should clean up their own house before breaking in and robbing another more successful one.

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I can’t speak to Dallas or Nashville, but New Orleans libraries are an unmitigated fricking disaster

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We spend over three times a year whst NO spends. No one wants to guy yge libraries, at least I don’t. But taxes need to go elsewhere. There are big gaps in public safety spending.

See you’re wrong here.

They take the money, save it, then use it to build when they have enough saved to pay cash.

So they are taking in x and providing x when they get enough x to provide x without having to ask for an additional y.

Well you are assuming money spent is not well spent.

Which is nothing more than your assumption.

I’m simply saying they are doing with the money exactly what they were asked to do. And while waiting to have enough for whatever the next capital expenditure is you assume they simply have too much money laying around.

It doesn’t matter to me if it’s well spent or not. I’ve never said whether I voted for the actual tax or not.

What I am saying is the voters voted for this as a dedicated tax knowing full well the amount of money it would generate and knowing it would be spent on exactly what the taxpayers asked for. The library board as suggested by some in this thread is not just some rogue organization spending on their own however they please.

So in the fall when the tax comes up for renewal do what you are supposed to do. Go vote however you feel.

But don’t tell me if I vote yes you will build me a library and then after the fact that you decided to take the money and use it for the items listed in one of my other posts which is a direct quote from the mayor.

You want to repurpose the “brave cave” which is an old metal building? You want to clean up blight, fund mental health, homelessness and community policing?

Well I didn’t vote for that.

This new mayor should learn to do his homework before he just decides we are in a crisis and he can strip funding. First and foremost he should look at his own budget and that of the rest of the city and decide if he can scrub it. He’s been in office 2 months so there is no way he has done his due diligence in that short period of time. He has a bunch of people telling him we need a raise and you can steal from the library to give us a raise. Do they actually need a raise? Did blight all of the sudden get worse over the last two months than it has been for the last forty years?

Fix it at the ballot box-not with some rob Peter to pay Paul .

Politicians that run on “I’m not a politician “ platforms seem to turn into politicians rather fast and I don’t trust any of them regardless of party.

So here is another example of the last paragraph. St George running on we want our tax money to be spent on our own new city. We aren’t going to raise taxes.

My occupational license went from $50 to $700.00. Ok I’ll live with that-6 month into a new city.

The interim mayor and council members want the taxpayers to approve a salary of around $170k for mayor and $40k for council members and then hire a private firm to run all city services with a hired city manager.

Well what the hell is the mayor and city council going to do if they are subbing out all the work?

Now is your argument for assuming money spent is money well spent.

Just another day at the public trough.

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3) Is there a big demand for a large, downtown Library?

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not sure but the old building was terrible

Plus the downtown library is busier than you think - busier than the pride, Scotlandville and Greenwell springs regional branches.

Politicians have been salivating over the library money for years. Yes, the library has too much money but that doesn’t mean you just take it for something else. Hopefully Sid puts it to a vote so the people can decide. That is the legal way to do it.

And unless they’ve hired tons of employees since I left, most of the branches were understaffed.