re: Thrive, And The EBR Library System

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The issue is that the library system is heavily over funded and extremely underutilized.

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100% on purpose.

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But what you agreed to in Thrive was that you could operate at 8.3 mills, and with $52.4M less in your fund balance.
Why would anyone vote for 10.5 mills in the future if you've already told us you can operate at 8.3?
I will gladly vote yes for a renewal at 8.3 or less. Anything above that and you're getting a no vote from me.

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Boom

Hammer meet nail.

Under 73% of the state is literate to begin with. In Baton Rouge, 50% of K-3 are grade level literate.

I appreciate the work put into your post, but maker spaces, etc., are simply not relevant. Money would probably be better spent on Adult Literacy Advocates, or any number of programs, than the EBR library system. Even in a rich county in Texas, the entire library system of the county serves old people, Asians, and cat ladies.

I'm one of 7 library board members. Although I never liked this plan, a majority of the board chose to support it. At that point, I had two choices: I could "stand on principle" and quit, or I could stay on the board, expressing my thoughts and opinions when and where the opportunity arose.

This was a situation where I "agreed to disagree" with the other board members while respecting their opinions and not publicly continuing to have a tantrum or pitch a childish fit.

Also, this IS Louisiana, and politics WAS heavily involved by those above us (our elected officials). As board members, our words and opinions only go so far; ultimately, it was those elected officials who placed this item on your ballot.

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Well, the voters have spoken, and they apparently felt like the services they were receiving didn't justify the costs

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The weird thing about this vote is both the proponents and opponents of the Library's level of funding voted no together for different reasons. The same people that will vote yes for any increase in library millage voted no because they didn't want any money being taken from the library to create a slush fund.

I'm worried that when a new renewal comes up in April they will march out and vote yes.

I have a serious problem with people who don't own property getting to decide how much property owners pay for their libraries. I also have a serious problem with 10 year tax levies. BR property values have increased dramatically in the last 10 years and the millages are bringing in more money than they anticipated. We shouldn't be locked into this shite for a decade.

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ronniep1

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I respect you coming on here and stating that you are on the board and bringing an informed perspective to the debate. The problem I always see from post like yours is that it has a little bit of - I don't know if arrogance is the word, but you are certainly giving yourself more credit than what is due. It does not matter to people like me that you provide maker spaces, and study rooms, and all that - we know that whatever you do you do it well and that is why you have so many vocal supporters. The point is you have the money to do things so well while other services do not. Services we feel are more important to our area than someone being able to learn how to sew.

In other posts in the past people have shown the amount of money our library system brings in vs other comparable cities and by no surprise we spend more.

I would like to see crime, literacy, and poverty data from cities who spend disproportionately on their libraries like we do vs cities who spend their money on other services. I'm willing to bet the data shows that libraries don't justify the spending we give them. Because I refuse to believe that the kids that are going to go out and join a gang, steal a car, murder, or commit any other act of violence are currently in the libraries learning how to build robots.

You point to the senior services and that is wonderful - no complaint there, but isn't that why we have a Council on Aging? Why are we forced to pay for both?

The library proponents love to tout the fact that they have no debt and have reserves for future spending but they always say its because they are run so well and not because they are taking in more than they need. It's a dishonest approach to the discussion and because of that it has me wanting to vote to defund it completely. I don't, but that is the feeling I get when I hear you brag about how much money you have while the rest of the city struggles.

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The library is a slush fund and a major waste of money paid for by St. George money.
BREC is another waste of money and over funded.

BR stole money from the parish to fund its monstrosity and now they are crying panic!

Cut your budget and your staff and live within your means. Stop funding CATS, Brec and the Library. The democrat answer is always to throw more money at a boondoggle or over fund something to steal from it on the side.

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CATS is a Baton Rouge/Baker tax. Not a parish tax and not funded by the EBR general fund. Just like BREC, EBR Library System, and COA. City Hall doesn't control their budgets, does not have the direct authority to make cuts, and cuts to their budgets would do nothing to help balance the books for EBR.

This is not an argument about whether those organizations should make cuts (they should), just pointing out that budget cuts for the legislatively established parish/district wide organizations would not help the current situation.

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The library is a slush fund and a major waste of money paid for by St. George money.

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The Library is way overfunded, but SG only paid its fair share of the property tax for this parish wide entity,

I like the library. I'm probably in the Goodwood branch once or twice a month, and I use its online services. Every time I've been in the Goodwood branch, it's busy. I've noticed similar things at other branches. But I think we can agree that even if the downtown branch needed a renovation, it became a boondogle of a vanity project that was bad PR. I"m not accusing you; don't know if you were even on the Board. But that project will haunt the Library.

The bigger issue is that we as a population are heavily taxed and see few benefits from it. I'm sure someone will roll in shortly and claim we are not taxed highly by national standards. But compare us to any other state, and tell me we have better infrastructure based on what we pay. Look at our per-capita tax collections compared to other states.

The reality is that our elected officials have a history of mismanaging tax dollars. So no one wants to put money into a general fund; it's all dedicated taxes. It's sad that the Library's comparative good fiscal management (backstopped by some overfunding) made it an attractive target for a cash strapped city. I won't hold that against you. But I join the guy above who said that now that the library has made known that it can operate on 8.3 mills, I better not see an ask for more without a good explanation.

Good luck, and thank you for sharing. We need more good civil discourse.