Author's hometown guts library funding

[Judi Lynn]

Dec. 15, 2004, 10:18PM

Author's hometown guts library funding
Budget woes close 3 facilities, including the Steinbeck branch
Reuters News Service




John Steinbeck had a rocky history with his hometown of Salinas.


SAN FRANCISCO - The central California town of Salinas, birthplace of Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, who wrote The Grapes of Wrath, will close its three libraries next year as a cost-cutting move.

The Salinas City Council voted 6-1 late Tuesday to end funding of the libraries due to an $8 million city budget shortfall. The library doors, including the main John Steinbeck branch, will close during the first half of 2005.

"Unfortunately, part of the $8 million solution is the $3 million library program," Salinas City Manager David Mora said Wednesday.

"But in addition to the libraries, we are not hiring police officers, we are closing recreation centers, we are making further reductions in maintenance services," Mora said.

He blamed a continuing economic recession, voter rejection last month of a local half-cent sales tax increase and other factors for the city's economic woes.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2949542

[DemBones DemBones]

1. Sad, and I'm afraid we're in for more and more of this.

When money's tight, people vote against school bonds, sales taxes, etc. Steinbeck would recognize what's happening.

[theHandpuppet]

2. I have to disagree

We have a spoiled society that expects services and conveniences at their beck and call -- we just don't want to pay for them. Salinas shouldn't have started with the libraries - I say cut off their water, sewer service, trash pickup, police force, fire dept, etc and then let them wail about a half cent sales tax increase.

[michaelwb]

3. Amazing

"voter rejection last month of a local half-cent sales tax increase "

Well that's a smart trade off voters. So you gave up libraries, recreation centers for your kids, maintenance (read more potholes, broken lights and signs) and less police - to avoid a tiny sales tax increase.

[MisterCompletly]

4. Sales taxes are regressive taxes

They also never go away or go back down. Before you know it you wind up with outlandish rates of 10% and more.

[theHandpuppet]

7. Oooooooh -- now that's outlandish!

Just the thought of a possible ten percent sales tax to pay for your police, fire, water and sewer, libraries, community centers, schools, animal shelters, roads, housing inspection, trash pickup, public transport, parks, etc etc etc. Yes, how utterly outlandish!

Sorry, no pity party here. I'll bet the same folks who championed the defeat of the sales tax increase in Salinas are the same ones who do it in my community year after year, the ones who'd rather have two spanking new SUVs sitting in the driveways of their mini-manses rather than pay a measley tax increase so their kids could have a real school and wouldn't have to attend class in portable trailers.

[w4rma]

10. Raise the property taxes instead of sales taxes. Sales taxes hurt local

buisnesses. Property taxes don't.

[MisterCompletly]

12. True somewhat but property tax really hurts those on fixed income

Even if I live long enough to pay off the loan I will still be paying more than $6,000 bucks a year for an ancient farmhouse that is in constant disrepair.

To add insult to injury, when I start collecting my SS payments some morons have managed to tax that income too! I can only hope that stupid move can be reversed or at the very least prevented from taxing SS income even more.

[w4rma]

13. Sales tax will hurt folks on a fixed income just as much.

When everything you buy is raised in price, you have to pay for it. At least with a higher property tax the folks who are more likely to have higher incomes, and are therefore more able to pay, are going to be paying for the public libraries and the places for kids to go after school (instead of being delenquents on the streets).

[MisterCompletly]

11. All that paid for by sales tax only?

In my world we also have state income tax, town and county property tax, personal property tax, draconian vehicle registration and inspection fees, permit fees for private septic, dog and cat tax, local agreement taxes and others I have missed. Add those to the 35+% federal taxes and there should be more than enough money to go around.

There needs to be limits and some oversight of the bloated services our taxes pay for. I see road crews of ten people with nine people watching one person run a hickory handled backhoe while they sip their lattes.

I agree taxes are needed to keep us civil but they are now approaching 50% of most people's income and rather than knee jerk a new tax into place we need to look at cutting waste first.

[w4rma]

14. Remember those road crews live locally and pay taxes too.

I don't think its that big a deal for road crews to have extra folks around, especially since they don't relatively make all that much to begin with and it's a pretty dangerous job where they have to watch one another closely to make sure they don't make a fatal mistake.

Also remember that this is a city/county, not a state so income taxes aren't an option at this level of government.

[Bridget Burke]

5. Apparently, Salinas never cared much for their favorite son....

From the linked article:

Steinbeck, whose works also included Of Mice and Men and East of Eden, was born and grew up in Salinas but was often criticized there during his life.

"The vilification of me out here from the large landowners and bankers is pretty bad," he wrote in 1938.

After his death, Salinas opened The National Steinbeck Center. From their biography: Steinbeck wrote to an aspiring writer from Salinas: “Don't think for a moment that you will ever be forgiven for being what they call ‘different.’ You won’t! I still have not been forgiven. Only when I am delivered in a pine box will I be considered ‘safe.’ After I had written the Grapes of Wrath and it had been to a large extent read and sometimes burned, the librarians at the Salinas Public Library, who had known my folks remarked that is was lucky my parents were dead so that they did not have to suffer this shame.”

www.steinbeck.org/MainFrame.html

Salinas sounds like one of those patches of Red in the Great Blue State of California.

[moondust]

8. He belonged in Monterey. eom

[ixion]

6. Steinbeck is one of our greatest authors

it's too bad the small-minded folk of Salinas can't come up with a creative way to cover the cost. :-(

[Mika]

9. Freedom is on the march

This is what Bush's freedom™ looks like.

[JitterbugPerfume]

15. bottom line

Ya gets what ya pays for