We Will Vote No On 15-75

If the Mail Tribune's online poll is any indication the library levy will be defeated handily.

Contrary to yesterday's post, I encourage everyone to vote against this measure rather than withholding your ballot. The measure will likely fail for both reasons—insufficient turnout and a plurality voting against—but it's important that the margin of defeat be decisive. Not just "No," but "Hell, no!"

I've posted on this topic repeatedly; first on Measure 15-66 last October:

According to the measure's explanatory statement, each year the library loans 1,472,000 items. That's right. Each year they loan out 1.5 million items at a cost of 8.5 million dollars. To spend so much money to so little effect is beyond the ability of the private citizen. That kind of waste requires a government agency.

Then on the library closure in April:

In a cynical ploy calculated to stampede the voters into approving a tax increase the Jackson County libraries have closed their doors five weeks before the special election. It won't work.

Then for background, links to three thoughtful articles on the future of libraries in general.

If public libraries attempt to compete in this environment, they will increasingly be seen for what Fairfax County apparently envisions them to be: welfare programs for middle-class readers who would rather borrow Nelson DeMille's newest potboiler than spend a few dollars for it at their local Wal-Mart.
—John J. Miller in Opinion Journal

And finally a cost comparison between four library systems in Southern Oregon:

Consider our next-door neighbors Josephine, Klamath, and Douglas County. (Call them, collectively, JKD.)

These numbers are from 2004-05 but even then Jackson County spent $7.5 million on its libraries as compared to $5.2 million for JKD. Yet JKD have 26 branches to Jackson's 15. And JKD serve 250 thousand citizens to Jackson's 195 thousand.

Why is it that Jackson County's libraries cost so much more?

Certainly not, I would suggest, because they're worth it.