There is more to do than just build the building--though the building is way important. It takes something like $100,000 a year more to run Hosmer than the library has a budget to afford. As a new Sumner and Franklin library come into being, it will take that much more for them too. The legislature is going to need to be lobbied to bring in those funds since it will be impossible for the city to keep up with the extra costs (I think, but I'm not too smart about this stuff). The costs go for additional homework helpers who are bi-lingual, additional programming, additional resources (read book and material budgets) to meet the needs of immagrant populations who are flooding the library to get the information to help them adjust to their new circumstances. It would be a great help if each member of this list were to privately lobby his/her legislators and congress members to think of libraries first, not last. The hook is the information age and how everyone in the country needs to be able to move comfortably through getting information. Of course, if that were to happen to its full extent, some legislators and congress people would be removed from their posts eventually. Ah, democracy! Wizard Marks, Central R.T.Rybak wrote: > The taxpayers of Minneapolis stepped up to pass the Library Referendum. But > I hope this doesn't end the debate about participation from the state, > country and business community. > > Minneapolis has stepped up over and over again to pay for facilities that > are regionwide and statewide resources, as Carol Becker pointed out. > Sometimes we have jumped up too quickly and let others off the hook....(I'm > one of many who saw the first convention center funding debate at the > Legislature who thought the city could have gotten the state money it > deserved it we had driven a harder bargain.) > > Whether or not that has now happened with the library, those planning this > project really owe it to Minneapolis' taxpayers to keep making that case to > the county and the Legislature... > > It would be nice if funding eventually came from the state so city taxpayers > wouldn't have to pay as much as they authorized...(Wouldn't you love it if > one day a political body said, "Thanks for this, you guys, but we didn't > need it all so have some back")....but considering the bargaining position > now lost, it seems very doubtful that will happen. > > If not, then the Legislature that has sent millions upon millions upon > millions to St. Paul for museums and arenas should at the very least be able > to fund a state-of-the-art Planetarium. And if, in fact, MacPhail is going > to have to move for St. Thomas' expansion, can the state that has spent > zillions on the University play a role in helping to integrate a new > MacPhail into the library for a first of it's kind music education center? > > And if a full merger of the city and county library systems isn't on the > table, isn't there at least an option here where the county should be > playing some role in this building? How about joining with the business > community to make a real step toward actually addressing the Digital Divide > with a state of the art Internet access center that can really serve the > masses, instead of the three or four at a time now lined up at the > terminals? > > The library project has had a very rocky road over the past decade, and > there is lots of blame to go around. But now that the taxpayers have > stepped up to do their part, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to > build something truly extraordinary. We shouldn't blow it by thinking small, > or letting others off the hook. This has the potential to be one of the most > important projects this generation will leave behind.... It's just that all > the spending on other projects means we shouldn't, and can't, pay for it on > our own. > > R.T. Rybak > East Harriet
