Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Moving Forward!
Extremely productive meeting this morning at the library with somewhere between 50 and 100 people in attendance. Lots of information shared, lots of misinformation cleared up, and lots of ideas about how to move forward, including many thoughts about how to reduce costs and thus the required tax levy if it's decided to go back to the voters again. Many other possibilities were also brought forth, such as running the library through the Library Foundation using donations, privatizing the library, going for a service distict (like 911) rather than an independent district (like the school district), establishing a "cultural district" that would include the library, the museum, 4H and possibly some other entities, having each city (Hood River, Cascade Locks, and Parkdale) responsible for its own library.... There were too many ideas to list them all here. Everyone who attended is on an e-mail list now and will be notified of further meetings to begin to sort all this out and focus in on what looks like it will work best. If you weren't able to attend and want to be on that e-mail list, send your e-mail address to saveourhoodriverlibrary@gmail.com.
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According to the HR County Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR linked below), net assets of our county increased from $116,608,465 in 2008 to $117,667,976 in 2009. Over $30,000,000 of this is in unrestricted cash and short term bonds. All we hear from the county commissioners is sound bites about a decline in timber revenues. However, in 2009, timber revenues were $3,989,949, just $15,000 below the average for the last 10 years. What we should really be asking is why additional taxes are needed when our county is so rich, and why our commissioners hide the true net worth of our county behind veiled yearly budgets? http://www.co.hood-river.or.us/vertical/Sites/%7B4BB5BFDA-3709-449E-9B16-B62A0A0DD6E4%7D/uploads/%7B51D55061-CF16-4724-8D04-377B0B862E8C%7D.PDF
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