The Chapel Hill Town Council voted to move forward on the 16 million dollar expansion of our Library. I emphasize the word “our” in that the Chapel Hill tax payer alone has completely footed the 16 million dollar expansion with their property tax dollars, and has agreed to a tax increase in order to fund the operational costs even though 40% of the users of the library don’t pay taxes in Chapel Hill and aren’t paying for the expansion and very little of the operational costs.
For over a year I have tried to have the council and staff entertain other options for fiscal equity in our library. Is it fair for every 100 dollars that a Chapel Hill taxpayer spends towards the library a Carrboro library patron pays 4 dollars? In April of 2009 I petitioned the staff to look at a financial model similar to Chapel hill Transit where pay is based on use. Either that, or come up with a realistic scenario for the council to consider to charge those that live outside Chapel Hill. Then there was the question as to whether or not the county would pay more than the 11% of operational costs that they have paid over the last 15 years (considering 40% of the patrons are from orange county, and actually that Chapel Hillians are from Orange County too so we are really pay for more than 40%).
Nothing was worked out at the time the deadline arose for the vote for expanding the library on June 7. I voted no to the expansion that night, but my “no vote” was not a vote to NOT expand the library. My no vote was a desire to delay the issuance of the bonds until we finally worked out the financial challenges that our library will have for Chapel Hill tax payers. If I had confidence that night the Library would not be an immense burden upon the Chapel Hill taxpayer, I would have voted in favor of the expansion that night. Perhaps we only needed a few more months to figure this all out, and then we could have voted to spend the money then.
I didn’t feel it right to spend so much money without an uncertain financial future. How could we feel good about asking our police, fire, landscapers, and other staff to save, save, save; accept no salary increase and pay higher medical copays for doctors visits, and then spend 16 million dollars on the library with an inevitable tax increase just for that??
The timing may have been right on the value of a piece of wood or steel, but the timing wasn’t right for me in assuming most of the costs of the library with very little outside help. I wanted to expand the library……but in the most fiscally equitable manner. I am only looking out for the average Chapel Hill citizen, which I fear may become more of a rarity as we continue to become, as WRAL-TV put it, “one of the most expensive places to live in the triangle”.
