Libraries levy, it's not about 9 cents
Published on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 by Robert LoweryRead More Voices
Editor,
The Directors at Sno-Isle Library system want us to make up a $2,500,000 shortfall in their budget for 2010. It looks like they kept spending like the Snohomish County building boom would go on forever. Now they want a 29 percent bump in their levy from you and me.
Sno-Isle Libraries already get an automatic levy increase of 1% each year. Our fire departments, police departments, school districts and local governments do not. When local governments wrote their taxpayer funding, they weren't crafty enough to include an automatic levy increase.
Once this $2.5 million tax hike is taken by Sno-Isle Libraries, it's money that will not be available for local schools, community police and fire districts. There's only so much taxpayers will pay before they start voting down everything. The folks that run Sno-Isle know this. That's why they're rushing to the front of the line.
Which is most important to your local community ... schools, fire, police or the library? OK, the next time your smoke alarm goes off in the night ... call the library. If our kids don't learn to read in school, how will they use the library?
Unlike the Sno-Isle Libraries, you and I can't tax our neighbors to pay our bills, but we can vote to spend our $2.5 million in additional taxes more responsibly for services that are truly vital for our communities.
Go find your ballot right now and mark NO on Proposition 1.
Robert Lowery
Mukilteo
The Directors at Sno-Isle Library system want us to make up a $2,500,000 shortfall in their budget for 2010. It looks like they kept spending like the Snohomish County building boom would go on forever. Now they want a 29 percent bump in their levy from you and me.
Sno-Isle Libraries already get an automatic levy increase of 1% each year. Our fire departments, police departments, school districts and local governments do not. When local governments wrote their taxpayer funding, they weren't crafty enough to include an automatic levy increase.
Once this $2.5 million tax hike is taken by Sno-Isle Libraries, it's money that will not be available for local schools, community police and fire districts. There's only so much taxpayers will pay before they start voting down everything. The folks that run Sno-Isle know this. That's why they're rushing to the front of the line.
Which is most important to your local community ... schools, fire, police or the library? OK, the next time your smoke alarm goes off in the night ... call the library. If our kids don't learn to read in school, how will they use the library?
Unlike the Sno-Isle Libraries, you and I can't tax our neighbors to pay our bills, but we can vote to spend our $2.5 million in additional taxes more responsibly for services that are truly vital for our communities.
Go find your ballot right now and mark NO on Proposition 1.
Robert Lowery
Mukilteo
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