CORRECTED VERSION: The Town Council on Monday will consider moving forward with a $16-million expansion of the Chapel Hill Public Library.
The town has already borrowed and spent about $2 million planning the project, and the council must decide whether to borrow another $14.23 million approved by the voters in 2003. The project would more than double the size of the current library, to more than 60,000 square feet.
Town Manager Roger Stancil says the town's budget for debt service can accommodate the new borrowing, but operating the larger facility will add about 1.3 cents per $100 of valuation to the tax rate once it opens in 2012, meaning additional taxes of about $40 on a year on a $300,000 house.
"The increased ongoing operating costs are significant and will present real challenges as the town's budgets for upcoming years are developed," Stancil wrote in a memo to the council.
UPDATE: I made a decimal point error on the original version of this post. The additional cost on an average home will be about $39 a year, not $390. Sorry for the confusion. See Sunday's Chapel Hill News for more.
Comments
Thanks for correcting the math error
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 18:30 — jcbarrI knew you had it wrong, because $1.31 per $100 valuation didn't add up to $390 either ($390 would have been $1.31 on $1000 valuation), and certainly $390 sounded like a huge jump for just extra space in the library. Good to see you are willing to own up to mistakes
This town is run by pretentious idiots..... from a CH native
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 18:10 — heel27514PMC hit this right on the head. There is so much waste and innefficiency in the town of CH regarding the allocation of town funds (i.e tax revenues) that it is downright insulting to ask CH taxpayers (me) to foot the bill for an (neccessary?) expansion.
The taxes on our house increased $900 this year, where does it end? I benefit so little from the services that I pay huge amounts of money to provide in CH. So much $$ is wasted on non-essential concerns in an effort to be a progressive, benchmark town. Every year its "just a little" more, yet the services become worse and worse.
It has been well documented that the CH public library is frequently used by many who reside outside of the town of CH, how about the Counties kick in? Maybe the library could actually charge some fees to the people that use it (there is a novel idea, actually have services that are paid for by those that use them, shocking)? Maybe the library could actually raise some funds itself?
Maybe the council could stop pissing away so much money on studies and talk, and actually do something to benefit THIS town. Stop trying to be Boulder and Madison and deal with the issues here and now, not what THEY want the town to be in 100 years.
How many "consulatants" have been hired over the years to explore every issue the town is faced with? How many of these consultants have been "friends" of the town or cronies? How much money has been spent "talking"?
Or how about just making things more efficient? Watch a public works project in CH, note the one guy working while five bosses stand around to watch. See the same employees leave their trucks (the 5 of them it takes to explore any in their own truck) running with the AC blasting for hours while they consult and eventually watch the laborers fix the problem. See town employees asleep in their trucks in cul-de-sacs in town (all of which I see daily). I cant imagine the savings that could be recognized by people actually doing what they were hired for, as opposed to doing the bare minimum possible to keep a govt job. I know this is not unique to CH but with 12% unemployment it seems like we could do better.
Kind of off on a tangent there but the key point being how poorly run this town of supposedly intelligent people is run. High and mighty ideas turn into pretentious drivel in the hands of a smarter-than-thou town council. They throw MY $ away in an effort to seem progressive and while they talk big game nothing ever gets done. Nor are the people ever really represented.
WATCH, this expansion WILL go through (as it is the madate of the people and while I dont agree, thats OK) and it WILL be paid for with an increase in taxes. The council will hear about it, drag their feet while it is studied, and then they will raise taxes and allocate more of MY $ to complete. Its the CH way!
Priorities....
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 20:39 — CitizenWillCouncil needs to get serious on prioritizing expenditures.
I've run the numbers several times over the last year and could not see
how we could prudently execute on the library expansion in the current
economic situation given the overhanging liability of Lot #5 and other pressing needs within the next two years.
I'd take the expansion idea more seriously if Lot #5, whose contract Council is being asked to extend yet again was dropped.
Even so, there are other pressing capital needs - notably the police department's crumbling facility (remember Foy's "emergency" meeting on Dawson Hall?) and anticipated fire protection for Carolina North - that should be dealt with sooner than later.
Increases
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 19:10 — fhblackDid your Chapel Hill taxes go up $900 or did your total tax bill go up $900?
Love them some books!
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 15:58 — ignc73Them folks in Chapel Hill ain't so smart. They want to spend money on books. That is dumb. Chapel Hill should spend money on Wal-Mart and McDonald's. That is smart.
I gone my hole life without reading anything but the Bible and I'm smart.
More wasteful spending that only benefits the FEW
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 14:37 — TheMoleI can't even fathom the IDIOTS that think this is a good choice of using dollars in our economy right now. I bet many people could "delay gratification" of a "nicer" library.
The few companies that might be involved ALREADY HAVE PLENTY OF JOBS AND INCOME. I was always right about u nuts in CH. Good luck, ur gonna need it.
Fiscal Priorities
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 14:35 — pmcgahanWhile it is only right to update the Library (The people actually voted for this cause), it does not require additional taxes if the council does what any person on a budget would do. That is, to set financial proirities and cut unnecessary expeditures.
The Town Council needs to get back to the fundamentals of running a town.
Raise taxes? Surely that is
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 14:35 — PhantomLordRaise taxes? Surely that is not needed. No doubt the good, kind, caring, and compassionate liberals in Chapel Hill will be more than happy to just break out their checkbooks and collectively donate, of their own free will, the funds needed to just pay cash for the project. Right?
Raise 'em now! Raise 'em high!
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 13:58 — alaskan1Taxes in Chapel Hill are about 10% of what they should be. $3900 per year on a $300,000 house would be more like it. How can one put a price on the value of a public library? We need a new center for learning here at the People's Republic of Chapel Hill. Please raise taxes now, there is no Scott Brown here.
worst library ever
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 13:26 — marcedward1Our public library is already hard to get to, difficult to park in, and hard to pull away from because of it's awful location. As well the largest piece of "public art" outside the building looks like it was made by a freshmen art student who waited till the day before the first crit to put the junk together. While inside the library is great, the terrible location and bad traffic make my visits to this library rare. Don't expand the stupid thing, sell it and relocate in University Mall, which has many empty stores and ample parking.
Confusing statement...
Thu, 01/21/2010 - 19:27 — CitizenWillYour article states that:
which could be read as meaning that the cost of borrowing is essentially nil and that the impact of borrowing is isolated, both of which are not the case.
Further, it would be nice if you had followed up with how this borrowing would effect the Town's debt, debt service, forward flexibility in borrowing (for projects like the ill-fated Lot #5), etc. instead of just passing on that we can borrow right to the limit - as Roger seems to be saying - with no negative consequence.
Dig deeper please.
Thanks for correcting the math....
Fri, 01/22/2010 - 20:20 — CitizenWillThanks Jesse for correcting the math but my point still stands - the actual impact covers not just the operational cost after the fact but the cost and fiscal riskiness of adding more to our Town's out-of-whack debt burden.
$39 per year doesn't sound like much until you layer on the possibility of exceeding our reserve requirements (and losing our AAA rating), the increased inflexibility of running up against the debt limit given that threat and the cost of repaying the bonds (it's not "free" money).