Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Oro Valley Pushing To Get Out Of County Library District, Avoiding Double Taxation

As reported in The Explorer, Town Manager David Andrews is working with the Arizona League of Cities & Towns to allow us to opt out of the Pima County Library system, avoiding the double taxation.

It may not be easy, and it may not be a good idea. Nancy Ledeboer, Pima County Library Director noted a town running a single library would not have the same tax base to draw from as Pima County, which runs 27 libraries, and likely would realize greater costs.

Read the pros & cons in The Explorer article here.
http://www.explorernews.com/articles/2009/08/19/news/doc4a8b34255025c914200534.txt

2 comments:

raindancer said...

I don't support OV leaving the regional system for several reasons:

The "saved" tax dollars are not tagged for library use only; what is to prevent these "saved taxes" from ending up in the general fund?

If it is assumed that the money would be library funding only: what will prevent the monies from being used for more children programs and less book purchases?

Have you ever noticed how many books are on the "request shelf"? OV pulls alot of books from the regional system. Will OV be able to provide the same level of service if they go it alone?

Why can't this be put to a town vote? Why do the town manager, town council and Friends of the Library assume they know what is best for us?

Here we go..another reason for a secondary property tax.

raindancer

artmarth said...

It seems to me that "raindancer" asked two very legitimate questions.

Can anyone let us know why a vote of the people wouldn't be in the best interest of the community---whatever the outcome?

Perhaps the voters do know better than the "select few."