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Aurora [Change Location]

"NO" to a seperate taxing district for libraries

Article Contributed on: 6/23/2009 1:52:47 PM

" NO. WE NEITHER WANT NOR CAN WE PAY MORE TAXES! WE DEMAND GREATER EFFICIENCY OF THE USE OF EXISTING TAX REVENUE!!

Vote "No"this November and send a resounding message to your duly elected Aurora City Council: Do THEY think we are stupid? It's not that We dislike libraries, we're just sick and tired of your shifting the burden on the taxpayers for more and more revenue.

Had you not given the sales tax revenue back to the developers of Aurora's four largest shopping centers FOR SEVERAL YEARS INCLUDING THE PRESENT, perhaps sale tax revenue would not be down quite as drastically, despite the economy.

You haven chosen to disregard reality and continue to dish our salary and benefit increases to city employees on a "business as usual basis." You are even presently considering giving the Mayor a $20,000 increase!

You claim to have instituted a moritorium on new hires for city positions, with little or no significant reduction.

Must everyone have a private passenger auto that works for the city? What ever happened to "city auto pools"?

Ditto cell-phone distribution. You don't audit personal useage because its cost ineffective? Instead, you granT city employees $100 each for personal use!!

If necessary, cut back to one central library and utilize a neighborhood bookmobile. Most people search for books on the Internet, so library visitations are not an absolute necessity. You already provide delivery for senior retirement centers and stay at homes. As an alternative, utilize the Aurora city fleet of buses to ferry people to and from the library. In other words, be creative and quit refusing to relinguish departmental turf and excessive library personnel positions.

Tough times call for drastic measures. Cease threatening we, your citizenry, with warm and fuzzy cutbacks in governmental services. It is You that is the public servant, not vice-versa!

Lawrence R. Weygand

Guidelines: Be kind. Abusive commentary may be removed. If you believe someone has been abusive, please click "Report Abuse".

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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments
Michael Davis wrote on 9/16/2009 @ 3:34:24 PM

One more thought to consider, the Arapahoe County Libraries are funded through a static mill levy through property taxes. They do not need to use debrucing language that hurts the residents of Arapahoe County and their libraries are some of the best in the metro area. I would support raising property taxes to support libraries but this ballot issues goes way to far. Vote no on 4A
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Michael Davis wrote on 9/16/2009 @ 3:30:08 PM

This tax is a huge mistake. The wording of the issue states that $12.5 million is guaranteed, no matter what. If property values drop, so what, the mill levy will be adjusted to "a rate sufficient sufficient to product the annual revenues specified above....and such additional amounts as me be necessary to account for increases in the consumer price index for the statistical area that includes Aurora...". It is a win win for the library and a screw job for property owners in Aurora. Oh, by the way, if you are a renter and you do not think this affects you, wait until you have to renew your lease, business property taxes are 3-4 times higher than residential property taxes. If you owned your apartment and the property tax on it was $100, renting the same place the property tax would be between $300 - $400 because it is considered business property. The property owner is the one paying the property tax, but the increase will be passed on to you, the renters. Vote no on 4A.
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Sheilah Thomas wrote on 9/16/2009 @ 12:43:58 PM

Do you know that Ed Tauer recently thought that we had enough money to give himself a $25,000 raise and increase his pension benefits by at least 300%. The City Council rejected it but promised to revisit the issue in 2010. Yes, we do need greater efficiency in our government. That money could go to the libraries instead. Thanks, Mr. Weygand...you're right as usual!
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b hills wrote on 6/27/2009 @ 12:43:02 PM

This article is full of inaccuracies. Mr. Weygand is not aware of the real needs of the Aurora library community. He does not offer reasonable atlernatives. The system could not afford a bookmobile, check out the cost of one. Most people do not simply request books and a majority of users do not have computers and internet at home. Lots of library staff is part-time and temporary with no benefits. No city cars or cell phones in sight either. I find Mr. Weygand the one who is disregarding reality.
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tracy t wrote on 6/27/2009 @ 12:09:34 PM

If this GID does not pass, 4 of Aurora’s libraries would close permanently, 50% of the budget would be cut and many staff will be laid off. I know that these are tough times financially for a lot of us, but I would encourage you to check the return on investment you get for that 6 dollars a month, by checking out the Library Savings Calculator on APL’s website. http://auroralibrary.org/screens/about/value.html...and that doesn’t even include all the economic and social benefits mentioned above that the city as a whole would experience from having a good library system.
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tracy t wrote on 6/27/2009 @ 12:09:19 PM

"Most people search for books on the Internet, so library visitations are not an absolute necessity" is just not true and libraries do so much more for a community than just provide books. in these tough economic times, the libraries have seen a huge increase in use including lots of people applying for job, using the libraries resources to help start a business, educating themselves, and attending free programming. In addition, research shows that the strength of a city’s library is directly correlated to the health of the city in general, both economically and socially. Business owners often look at a library system as an indicator of the health of a city when deciding where to start or relocate a business.
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tracy t wrote on 6/27/2009 @ 12:08:53 PM

A little more info...it is an approximately 6.00/month property tax for a 200,000 home. These tax monies would go solely to fund Aurora Public Libraries which provide books, free internet access , childrens’ literacy programming, computer classes and more to all Aurora citizens. It would also allow 7 million dollars to go back into the city’s general fund(which covers things like police and fire and other basic city services) to help cover the 14 million dollar budget shortfall expected for 2010.
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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments