Library plan a bit too much

March 26, 2014

Reference is made to the Bonners Ferry Herald front page story of March 20, concerning the proposed new library building.

In May we can vote on an $8 million bond for a three story building plus an additional levy of $100,000 for operating expenses. A library is a fine complement to a community. The current facility is great and provides access to the Internet for those who don’t have computers at home. The book resources are excellent.

Perhaps it is noteworthy that in a county with a 2012 estimate of 10,800 people (the most recent census data shown on the county website) the projected increase in property taxes will be $72 per year for each $100,000 of valuation. [Note: I’ve always found those projections are understated when the tax man cometh.]

Of those 10,800 people nine percent or more are unemployed. The article also states that 28% of children under five live in poverty. Children under five usually don’t live alone, so if they are family members of the nine-percent figure, what is the point of mentioning them?

And back to the 2012 estimated county census data, from 2010 to 2012 the net county population dropped by 1.5%. So the projection of more people moving into Boundary County to absorb some of the tax costs is wishful thinking not reflected in census data.

It is remarkable that the library board and planners would propose 28,000 square feet, to include covered parking, space for the U of I extension office that is already housed here, for the North Idaho College that has “a really nice outreach center already” so there is “a feel of a college campus,” and provide resources for business, inventors, and collaborators to work with worldwide educational communities. And let us not forget the envisioned rooftop garden and industrial kitchen facilities.

Reality check - for a college education, young people still have to go far away from Boundary County. A library is not an accredited four year university. And when the students get their degree they will go where the jobs are. Those jobs are not in Boundary county. And to connect with any place in the world only requires a computer, not an $8 million bond measure.

So to build this Taj Mahal of Boundary County, the USDA will provide a Rural Development loan at 4.374% interest. For those in this county who actually have the money for a savings account, dare I suggest that the interest rate is somewhere far below 4.374%? And how many of the 9%+ unemployed can pay another increase in property taxes for 30 years? Whether the nine percent unemployed are property owners or renters, they will still pay the increased taxes with increased rent.

To the credit of the library director, she hopes to build the facility at under $5 million. But the fact is the bond for The People’s University is to be for $8 million unless that number is revised before the May primaries. And in this county a $5 million obligation is still far in excess of what good economics would suggest.

The plan as reflected in the cited newspaper article is extravagant.

We don’t need to build opulence for what already exists here. In a time when the federal government rammed through an undesirable law to control how we obtain our health care and punish us if we don’t comply, when the economy is being destroyed by a massive national debt, and when the world political situation just became much worse, the future of this country and our lives are quite unstable.

This library plan, without the embellishments, might be fine in a community of 50,000 people, but in Boundary County it is just far too much.