Perhaps no other entity represents the government’s lack of accountability to the taxpayers as library districts do in Kentucky.
Unelected library boards have the power to raise your taxes, and that is simply not right. Any person with the ability to raise or lower taxes should be directly elected by the taxpayers.
Library board members are appointed by fiscal courts, who are elected.
Sen. John Schickel
However, to add insult to injury, the fiscal court must appoint from a list of people approved by the Department of Libraries and Archives in Frankfort. Because of this unaccountable system, Kentucky has many counties where the library tax is higher than the county tax — and the county tax is that from which all basic services are funded.
For this reason, I have again filed Senate Bill (SB) 48 which would give fiscal courts the power to appoint someone not on the list from the Department of Libraries and Archives, if the court deems no one on the list is suitable.
This is not a final solution, but it is a step in the right direction in providing some accountability to taxpayers with regard to libraries.
You would not believe how hard this legislation has been to pass. Sadly, libraries across the state have dug in, hiring lobbyists on your dime to come to Frankfort, on your dime, opposing this common-sense legislation. They accuse people who support it as being “backward” and anti-library. This could not be farther from the truth.
These lobbyists have been effective, and the result has been some legislators getting reluctant and forgetting the taxpayers they represent.
You can help by calling your legislator and urging them to support Senate Bill 48 again this year.
As always, if you have any questions or comments about this issue or any other public policy issue, please call me at 502-564-8100, Ext. 617, or visit my LRC webpage to submit a message. You can also follow me on Twitter at @SenatorSchickel. You can review the Legislature’s work online at www.lrc.ky.gov.
Senator John Schickel (R-Union) represents the 11th District in Boone County. He serves as chairman of the Senate Licensing and Occupations and Administrative Regulations Committee, as well as a member of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee; Judiciary Committee; Natural Resources and Environment Committee; and Budget Review Subcommittee on Justice and Judiciary.
I’m trying to think; Has any government service been improved by adding politics to it? I’ve got nothin’.
The Senate Bill cited in the article is not 42…it’s 48.
SB 48 (BR 315) – J. Schickel, S. Humphries
AN ACT relating to library district boards.
Amend KRS 173.480, relating to public library districts’ initial board appointments, to allow a county judge/executive with the approval of the fiscal court to appoint the first members of the newly created library board when any of the prospective appointees presented to the judge, in the judge’s opinion, are not suitable; amend KRS 173.490, relating to public library districts, to allow a county judge/executive with the approval of the fiscal court to appoint members or fill vacancies of the library board when any of the prospective appointees presented to the judge, in the judge’s opinion, are not suitable; amend KRS 173.725, relating to petition-created library districts’ initial board appointments, to allow a county judge/executive with the approval of the fiscal court to appoint the first members of the newly created library board when any of the prospective appointees presented to the judge, in the judge’s opinion, are not suitable; amend KRS 173.730, relating to library districts created by petition, to allow a county judge/executive with the approval of the fiscal court to appoint members or fill vacancies of the library board when any of the prospective appointees presented to the judge, in the judge’s opinion, are not suitable.