Registered voters throughout Pottawatomie County have a great opportunity to make a positive statement for libraries Tuesday by voting in favor of the millage increase for the Pioneer Library System. Shawnee’s public library and those library facilities throughout the county are part of the Pioneer System.
Cleveland and McClain counties are part of the Pioneer system as well, and voters in those two counties also are being asked to approve the two-mill increase.
The system is now at four mills. If voters approve the increase, it will raise funding to the maximum of six mills allowed by state law.
The library system is funded primarily through ad valorem (property) tax. While there is some state funding, the overwhelming majority of it comes from ad valorem tax.
Pottawatomie County’s last ad valorem tax increase for the Pioneer Library System was in 1992. If the millage issue passes, it will translate to 84 cents more per month in ad valorem taxes for a $50,000 property owner.
The funding increase will provide additional materials, and allow the Shawnee library to open on Sunday afternoons and at least one hour longer on Friday and Saturday evenings, local library officials say. Under consideration for additional funding also would be some kind of service point in the north end of Shawnee, but that is just in the early planning stages.
It’s important to remember a couple of things about Tuesday’s election. If Pottawatomie County voters approve the millage increase, then citizens in this county reap the benefits of the additional funding, regardless of how the proposition fares in McClain and Cleveland counties. County voters decide their own fate and are not reliant or dependent on the total vote outcome throughout the system.
Another positive is this election requires only a simple majority to pass, and not the supermajority requirement of many ad valorem-based propositions. That can be a significant difference.
The city of Shawnee is responsible for the library facility itself. The late Don Bodard and his wife Nancy had the foresight in the late 1980s to provide the impetus for a new library. It was the Bodards who provided the $1 million funding for the building itself.
The city ensured the land was available and other private funding was used to furnish and equip the library. The Pioneer System is not in the bricks and mortar business.
Libraries are important in our society, even though often they are overlooked.
