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EDITOR:
I contribute to the support of the public library in Placerville through property taxes and personal contributions so I think I can make comments and suggestions concerning the financing of our library. My recent copy of the “Between Friends” newsletter, from the El Dorado County Friends of the Library, starts with commentary on the failure of Measure L to be passed in the November 2012 election. The county does not seem to have the funds, or maybe just does not want to spend the money to keep the Public Library operating. Instead, they keep putting tax measures on election ballots and the supporters of these measures say it is only a few dollars more on your tax bill. The Friends of the Library newsletter is asking for $17.58 per (person, household, property owner?) to keep the library operating. They claim that is what would have been added to your tax bill with the passage of Measure L. Have you seen all the “add-ons” to our residential tax bills as the result of adding just one more important thing to it? What I am reading in the Sacramento paper tells me that the State Legislature may try to give local government power to take an end-around Proposition 13 limits and put more taxes on our residential tax bills.
Well, for the Public Library operating budget, I suggest making it a library operated by a for-profit private company. Yes, no more free ride for non-tax paying residents. Membership fees required to use the library. Mr. Carnegie’s idea of a Public Library was good, as long as he funded it with all that money he made as an American capitalist but the basic homeowner is starting to bend over with fees, bonds and assessments on his/her tax bill. Got a better idea? Put another cent on the sales tax? Somebody get their thinking cap on and put an idea out there. The Public Library can’t continue trying to survive by sucking off the property owners’ tax bills. I haven’t used the Placerville library in years but I keep paying my share to keep it open.
HARVEY ANDREWS
Smith Flat
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Sue TaylorDecember 07, 2012 - 5:03 pm
Well you might ask the Board of Supervisors since they continue to create super powers at the county with super funding for super projects. It might have something to do with their priorities. Kinda like a bullet train thing or should I say a 5 million dollar bicycle path to nowhere... oh.. different funding...
Patricia McKinneyDecember 15, 2012 - 8:14 am
Mr Andrews, The library is a service like any other we have available to us: fire, police, water. It is for the whole community but especially for those who can't afford books or computers. These services raise the quality of a community. From the Bible comes an appropriate verse: "For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required." -- Luke 12:48
taxpayerDecember 15, 2012 - 8:23 am
Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” -- Luke 3:12-13
taxpayerDecember 15, 2012 - 8:25 am
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ -- Luke 18:9-14
taxpayerDecember 15, 2012 - 8:27 am
The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ -- Luke 7:34
taxpayerDecember 15, 2012 - 8:34 am
nd when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” -- Matthew 9:11-13
Phil VeerkampDecember 15, 2012 - 11:20 am
Do we google or do we decimal? That is the question.