Expressing appreciation for Krug’s efforts “to help the city come up with revenue without raising the property tax,” Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist told the Journal Sentinel that the funds raised might only “pay the salary of half a librarian.” MCFLS Director Doris Nix’s ambivalence about the proposal was more philosophical. She told the newspaper, “One person’s entertainment is another person’s information. It’s a judgment call.”
If passed into law, the bill would end a 131-year history of forbidding the imposition of service fees in Wisconsin. Last year, the state Assembly passed a bill allowing the imposition of fees statewide, only to rescind it a scant month later after library workers and boosters protested vigorously.
Paul Nelson, who chairs the Wisconsin Library Association’s Library Development and Legislative Committee, suggested on the WLA website that the appropriate response would be the adoption of a “Free Libraries Resolution,” an example of which is posted, along with the names of the 76 libraries and governing authorities that have reaffirmed the concept of fee-free service so far.
Posted November 17, 2003; revised December 8, 2003.