Posted November 26, 2003.

Indiana Bill Would Second-Guess Trustees' Budget Decisions

A property-tax relief bill approved by the Indiana Senate November 25 includes a provision giving local elected bodies the right to roll back the decision of a public-library board to raise a property-tax levy by 5% or more in a fiscal year. “I’m tired of taking the rap for people who can approve whatever they want and don’t have to answer to anybody,” Rep. Bob Alderman (R–Fort Wayne), who proposed a similar bill in 2002 that was defeated, told the Associated Press November 23.

Alderman introduced the earlier legislation in reaction to the Allen County Public Library board’s 2001 approval of an $84.1-million levy to refurbish the main library and 11 of the system’s 13 branches. Although the operating levy rose only 4% in 2001 and 3.7% the following year, the 2002 debt service on the capital bonds catapulted the county’s overall property-tax levy up by 41%.

The bill affects the 239 public-library systems statewide that lack a majority of trustees who are elected to their library board. However, the legislation specifically excludes Indiana school boards and airport authorities whose majorities are also appointed rather than elected.

In response, the Indiana Library Federation is polling its members as to whether they would prefer “to accept fiscal oversight by an elected body or to support enabling legislation for appointed library boards to become elected boards.” “We cannot expect the issue to fade quietly into the background,” the alert cautioned.

“I don’t know what we would be able to keep open if the bill is approved,” Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library Director Marcia Au said in the November 24 Evansville Courier and Press.

Posted November 26, 2003.