The Sacred Herd

There is no more sacred cow in local budgets than libraries.

At least, that's what local politicians would like you to think.

Minneapolis is going through the same flailing spasms that Saint Paul did a few years back over a plan to pare back the number of libraries in the city.

Under pressure to balance the 2007 budget, the city's Library Board scheduled five public meetings starting today to gauge the opinion of library patrons.

They're being asked to choose the best of the worst situations, said Colin Hamilton, executive director of the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library.

"I think all of these options are terrifying," Hamilton said.

Under two of the three budget-balancing proposals, the Roosevelt, Southeast and Webber Park branches would close Jan. 1.

Hint to Minneapolis residents: think a minute.

Libraries are to cities what teachers are to schools:

• They are the symbol of the43 benificent good of each institution.
• They are what their respective institutions regard as sacrosanct, the most important thing they deliver to their constituents...at least, while the speeches are being made.
• Then, when budgets "get tight", they are the first thing put on the chopping block. Why? Because they're the part of the city government that everyone sees, everyone uses, everyone loves. It ratchets up the emotions more than, say, threatening to lay off people in Health and Family Support, or some of the school district's plethora of middle managers, or STD programs, or cutting back on soft-skill consultants at the school district, or some other program that most people never see.

No. The whole point is to hit you, the city resident and taxpayer, where you live - by chopping away at the one city (or school) expenditure that doesn't pull you over, tax you, write tickets for the weeds in your alley, stand around holding a shovel as you wait to drive past, or sit in endless meetings to determine consensus on a process for determining consensus for a process to determine a mandate for meeting processes.

And when they've scared you - no, when they've bullied you into acquiescing, then all will go back to more or less normal - except you, the taxpayer, will have been trained. Don't get uppity when it comes to taxes, or mother city's gonna take your library away!

But not, of course, the mayor's police car, or the school superintendant's car allowance. An institution's gotta have its priorities.

Posted by Mitch at September 14, 2006 06:51 AM | TrackBack