10/23/07 update on fiscal government stories (city only)

Nothing from the county since last week, but yesterday there was an interesting article about Mayor Daley's goofy proposal to raise taxes to pay for, of all things, libraries. What's most fascinating is its insights into the mind of someone who has spent her entire working life in a comfortable government job. I am tempted to paste the whole thing here with comments after each paragraph, but I'll try to hold back. It starts like this:

Opposing libraries is like taking a stand against Mom and apple pie. But that's the bind confronting Chicago aldermen.

Oh yeah, I'm sure they are going to lose an election by voting against new libraries (which no one cares about) and voting for lower property taxes (which everyone cares about). Anyway:

On Monday, Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey tried to salvage an increase that appears to be going nowhere in the City Council.

The city has a Library Commissioner? That alone is wasteful. How much money does she make? That's a budget cut for you right there.

She noted that $99 million of the increase was needed to support salaries of a library work force "stretched to the limit" by 434 vacancies. That leaves $9 million to retire the $130 million borrowing needed to build roughly a dozen new libraries.

That's a lot of money to waste on building new libraries. But of course, her first priority is to increase the unionized government workforce, which she no doubt was once a part of.

And Dempsey warned that, without the increase, Chicago would have no choice but to reduce weekend and evening hours. Most libraries are open until 8 or 9 p.m. to accommodate working families. Sunday is the busiest day at Chicago's three largest libraries.

So, don't reduce hours on Sunday. Also, why are "families" out until 9 PM? Those kids should be in bed! Finally, isn't it always about "working families"? I'm tired of them getting all the good stuff. As though parents who don't keep their kids out late at libraries don't work.

"We'd have to look at trimming hours and positions" and halt new construction, even in cases where land for new libraries has been donated to the city, the commissioner said.

Donating land is easy. How about them also donating money to run the libraries? The second-best part is yet to come, however:

Dempsey noted that the record property tax increase would amount to just $80 more each year for the owner of a $250,000 home.

"That's $6.67 a month. I don't think you can buy a new paperback book for $6.67. But with your library card, you can check out 30 books at a time," she said.

These are the words of someone who has deified libraries beyond recognition. First, if everyone who had to pay the extra tax went to the library to get their books, the libraries would need a whole bunch more money for staffing and materials (like wasteful internet access for people to cheap to get it at home). Second, who wants to read some ratty book from the library when they can buy a new book for $20? Third, is it the job of the city to enforce some annual library use fee on millions of people who would never use them? Finally, and most absurdly, who would have any possible reason to check out 30 books at a time?

The best part is last. Bear with me and read the whole section:

Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) went so far as to suggest alternative funding sources — like selling naming rights to branch libraries, providing "retail opportunities" in new libraries and getting a corporate sponsor for the library card itself.

"We're trying to look for every opportunity for revenue," Tunney said.

Dempsey said she has "never ruled anything out" to raise new money. But she also questioned whether such innovative ideas would "sustain" library operations.

"We keep people with us for 30-plus, 40 years because they see a career track in the library. They see advancement opportunities. We have a tuition reimbursement program. We send people to library school..It would be less attractive to people if we were running around every year trying to find corporate sponsorships to pay for basic city operations," she said.

Wow. The city pays to send people to library school. What the hell is library school? I think that even without a degree from library school I could figure out how to check out books for people and use the Dewey decimal system. What advantage is there to having people seeing working in a library as a career with "advancement opportunites"? They don't do anything! And the capper is that it would just be so awful to try to find ambitious, hard-working people who have to raise money rather than lazy, contented, career book filers.

I thought everyone would appreciate seeing the inner workings of the city library system. Hopefully you are as cranky about it as I am.