Libraries are a luxury
Another one of those silly quality of life issues that no one wants to pay for:
Ranking near the bottom among Texas’ six largest cities in the amount of per-capita funding it receives, San Antonio’s library system is in dire straits, with $17 million worth of maintenance needs it can’t afford, the City Council was told Wednesday.
The answer, according to a blue-ribbon commission appointed last year to study library needs, is doubling the system’s budget of $25 million a year and creating a library district that would provide a dependable revenue stream.
Thanks to the work of Senator Wentworth and Representative Straus in the last legislative session, San Antonio and Bexar county can create a library district. I realize that as Texans we couldn’t care less what people outside of Texas do, especially Cleveland.
Martinez stunned the council when he compared the money other cities spend on their library systems with San Antonio’s. For example, the local system’s $21 million yearly operating expense is $173 million less than what is spent in Cleveland.
However, do we always have to be behind Houston, Dallas, and Austin as well?
San Antonio Current - News A novel idea
According to John Nicholas, chairperson of the San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees, the city’s libraries receive less per-capita funding - $12 - than libraries in any other major Texas city. Austin’s funding is $25 per person, Fort Worth and Dallas, $20, and Houston, $18. Only El Paso, with $11, ranks lower than San Antonio. Also, the state requires that libraries provide the equivalent of two items per resident; San Antonio has 1.5.
Oh wait a minute, I forgot. We do lead in having one of the lowest property tax rates among major Texas cities except for El Paso.
Technorati Tags: San Antonio, Libraries, Joe Straus, Jeff Wentworth, taxes
Filed under: Jeff Wentworth, Joe Straus, San Antonio, Taxes, libraries
The S.A. public library has always been a stinker. And, now, with the internet, I find I can completely do without going to that downtown, God-awful, ugly, monstrosity of a so-called building we call our library. Every time I look at that building I want to puke. What a joke it is. Just what we need a special taxing district to fund more of these “buildings.” The people who built the downtown library ought to be jailed. In fact, the entire city council ought to be jailed just on general principles.
Just Another Satisfied San Antonio Taxpayer
I thought that was a Taco Cabana, Jim. Hmmm. Go to the Bushnell Library. You’ll appreciate it more.
In all seriousness, if the Internet doesn’t satisfy, which is rarely the case, I find myself headed to UTSA or the superior Texas State library. But like I said…rarely. Wondering if there’s any way to eliminate some of the branch libraries…or at least downsize them. I know that query sounds a little ignorant; I need to read more about this. I guess I’ll head over to the Taco Cabana.
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