The Miami-Dade (Fla.) Library System announced March 12 that its 1998–99 acquisitions budget is only half the amount usually budgeted. Library administrators told the Miami Herald that the library's projected $17.92-per-capita expenditure, totaling $2.5 million, is the third lowest in the United States, although it holds the second-highest place in usage.
The low figure is a result of the dwindling reserve created by a special two-year property tax approved by voters in 1988 that has supplied Miami-Dade's entire materials budget for more than a decade. In November 1997, taxpayers rebuffed a similar two-year tax proposal.
This funding dilemma comes at a time when county public schools have launched a program to raise reading test scores by giving reward stickers to students who read titles from an approved list. Most children need to use the local library to find their books.
Posted March 16, 1998.