The absence of four supervisors at an August 14 Waukesha County (Wis.) Board of Supervisors meeting has cost the 16-member federated county library system an additional $345,000 in long-sought additional revenue. The second time in four years that the funding-formula modification has been defeated by elected officials, the proposal would have shifted 13 cents per $1 of property taxes for library capital expenses from Waukesha County towns containing libraries to people living in communities without a library, according to the August 15 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. All Waukesha County residents have patron privileges systemwide, regardless of whether their town has a library.
“The debate centered on fairness,” System Director Thomas J. Hennen Jr. told American Libraries, adding that plan detractors believed nonlibrary communities shouldn’t pay more because they “don’t have a voice in building decisions” for towns with libraries. However, supervisors in favor of the plan argued that “it was only fair to have nonresidents help pay for the buildings they use.”
Although the plan got a majority of “yes” votes from supervisors in attendance, the 35-member board required a two-thirds majority vote, or 24 supervisors, to override County Executive Dan Vrakas’s August 1 veto of the plan. “The good news is that not a single supervisor changed their vote despite intense lobbying by the county executive and his staff,” Hennen said, noting that three years earlier the former County Executive Daniel Finley had persuaded nine board members to withdraw their library support.
Creator of the HAPLR Index (Hennen’s American Public Library Index) for ranking the quality of library service nationwide, Hennen explained that 18 nonlibrary communities currently comprise 24% of the Waukesha County property-tax base and 20% of the county population—yet those taxpayers pay for some 17% of library operations and zero toward facility upkeep.
A determined Hennen anticipates reintroducing the proposal to library system trustees. “The third time is the charm, right?” he mused.
Posted August 17, 2007.