In November, Natrona County will once again vote on whether or not to increase sales taxes by 1% to cover the construction of a new library. The measure failed in 2008. The pro-library folks seem to think it’s a good sign it was added to the ballot, but most Wyomingites I know think it should go to a vote no matter how we feel about it. We’d rather it go to a vote than have some committee spending our tax dollars.

Fellow blogger in Cheyenne, Specter6, posted about the new Laramie County library which opened in 2007. Seems those initial construction costs were just the beginning. Increased utilities, collection purchases, and staffing are pushing the library into a deficit.

It’s something to consider before we take on a 29 million dollar construction project.

I’d actually like a new library, and I like the proposed old Yellowstone district location. I’d be in favor of continuing to update, landscape, and improve the area and incorporate green space connecting it to the Platte River Parkway, but not if it’s going to use up all our county budget surplus, and put the library itself in jeopardy 5 or 10 years from now.