Tax dollars are being abused

There was a fine editorial in Wednesday’s paper about government budgets and how they can be abused. From personal experience, I could not agree more.

Since I love libraries, in years past I served as a trustee for the Community Library Network. This is the collection of libraries that serves Hayden, Post Falls, Rathdrum, Pinehurst, Spirit Lake, Athol and Harrison. I gradually came to the realization that the amount our citizens paid in taxes was of little concern to this library district. It was always the same, take the most that is legally possible, which is 3 percent, plus the growth. So, for every year since at least 1995 CLN has done just that. Other taxing entities have occasionally done so and paid the price of public scrutiny and scorn.

In recent months, even the CDA Press weighed in on CLN continually taking the maximum tax amount they could get and encouraged those who disagreed to get involved. So imagine my shock and disappointment when I found out that they are planning to take the maximum tax increase yet again for 2018.

Let’s look at how they are proposing to spend your hard-earned money. CLN collected $3,687,106 for year end 2015 in property and sales tax income. For 2018, just three short years later, they want to take $4,211,053, a 14.2 percent increase. Mind you, this does not include approximately an additional $270,000 that we pay for a library bond issue every year.

So where is all this money going you may ask? Well, it is not going to pay for books and materials since they are proposing only $452,400 to buy books and only $30,976 to buy e-books. To put this in perspective, the $452,000 is less than 11 percent of the aforementioned tax income. Is that enough? I tried this afternoon to see if I could get a single copy of any New York Times bestseller for my e-reader. Nope, maybe next month?

To answer where the money is going, you need to look no further than salaries and benefits; they are proposing $3,165,070 for 2018. The same category was only (?) $2,514,837 year ending 2015. Look at the increase in just three years! Also you should know that the salaries of about 6-7 administrators equals the cost of all the books purchased.

I have a solution: 1) Eliminate one managerial position. 2) Never exceed the tax increase taken by Kootenai County. 3) Install a hiring freeze. 4) Match our community on benefits. Employees should be making a contribution for their medical premiums. 5) Think of the money they could save by not having to put books on hold and lastly work harder finding volunteers.

Is this the worst tax entity in the state? Perhaps, after all no other entity could have taken a bigger percentage increase than CLN for the last 23 years. Please join me at the CLN Budget Hearing at 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10. Please call 773-1506 for the location. Let the five trustees — Katie Blank, Judy Meyer, Michele Veale, Regina McCrea and Robert Fish — know what you think. Stop taking the maximum tax increase and be responsible!

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Glen K. Seely is a Coeur d’Alene resident.