Whitley Library Board, county officials, at odds over taxes

A dispute over taxes and laws regarding board appointments currently has county leaders pitted against the county’s library board – a dispute where both sides appear entrenched with no easy resolution in sight.

Disagreements surfaced in November of last year when the five-member Whitley County Library Board submitted two names to Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. for consideration as nominees to fill a vacancy on the board. Chairman Bob Reising had resigned earlier in the year.

By law, White was obligated to choose one of the two people submitted by the Board. The nominees were Joann Siler and Mark White.

Instead, White suggested the appointment of Connie Cord to the board, a move that was approved by the rest of the fiscal court. Cord works in the officer of Whitley County Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble, and White had hoped she could bring a legal perspective to the board.
But White also admitted he intentionally subverted the law on appointments to the library board because he "strongly disagrees" with that board’s decision to raise its tax rate in 2010 – a move he said was also done illegally.

"I think the law restricts the way in which libraries are allowed to raise taxes to petition only," White said. "They are doing it by just a vote of the board. The vote of a board that appoints itself also raising taxes … I just can’t agree with that."

White points to KRS 173.790, a state law that seems to bolster his argument. It says that the tax rate for any public library district in Kentucky cannot be raised or lowered unless a petition is presented to the county’s fiscal court with the signatures of at least 51 percent "of the number of duly qualified voters voting in the last general election in each county in the district." The petition must specifically state the amount of increase or decrease planned in the tax rate.

"I refuse to take part in an organization that doesn’t appear to be obeying this [law]," White said. "I’ve asked for an explanation. I’ve asked them to nominate other people … someone that will for sure not raise taxes in the future."

The Whitley County Library Board refused to accept Cord’s nomination and she was only present at one meeting, as a spectator, since her appointment.

Whitley County Library Director Greg Meadors said both he and the board are relying on interpretations of the law on taxation made by the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives and the state’s Attorney General.

"As far as I know, the way we are doing it is the same way all the other libraries in the state are doing it," Meadors said. "To the best of the board’s knowledge, they are operating the way they are supposed to operate and trying to make sure we are able to give the county the best library service available and plan for the future."

Annually, the Department of Libraries and Archives provides a "compensating" tax rate to library districts to approve if they chose. Normally, government organizations that have taxing districts – such as school districts, libraries and cities – can adopt a tax rate that allows them to collect four percent more, in real dollars, over what was collected the previous fiscal year. To exceed this amount usually requires a referendum whereby voters can accept or reject the proposal.

The "compensating" rate will either raise or lower the overall property tax rate in a district depending on average property values. On occasion, the rate will stay static.

White contends that the library board voted for a 22 percent increase two years ago and a modest tax increase for the current fiscal year. Currently, the library board receives about 4.5 cents per $100 of assessed value on property in the county.

"I think they provide a valuable service and the library system has an important function, but I don’t think we should be raising taxes on people, not with the way the economy is on the local and national level," White said.

White says the tax increases are even more galling given that the library board is currently sitting on a roughly $1 million surplus, and operated at about $100,000 under budget last fiscal year.

But Meadors defends the surplus and savings as good fiscal management, and says the board has plans to expand the Whitley County Library in the near future.

"The amount that is there is not something that just happened overnight, it is money that has been saved since around 2000," Meadors said. "We’ve been operating under budget for the past so many years to plan ahead for the future. We’ve gone through the library standards, and for a county of our size, we should have a collection of books on hand roughly twice what we currently can house."

Meadors said a lack of space is leading the tough decisions about what the library can offer to the public, forcing constant weeding out of books and other media that someone may want to check out. And he counters White’s economic arguments by pointing out that the Whitley County Library has seen a dramatic increase in use since the economy went sour in the past few years.

Meadors said the library also needs to expand its parking.

And finally, Meadors said surpluses and saved revenue are necessary to square with sound financial principals. The Whitley County Library System has an annual budget of about $600,000. A quarter of that money goes to support the Corbin Public Library along with a third of any state aid received.

"It’s suggested that we keep a six month operating budget on hand at all times," Meadors said.

In the late 1990s, the library found itself in need of those extra funds when then Whitley County Sheriff H.D. Moses got about 14 months behind on tax collections, forcing the library to dip into reserve funds in order to stay open.

White said he doesn’t think the county has standing to challenge the library board’s decision to raise taxes, but any individual taxpayer could do so through the courts. The tax increase is currently in force and is being collected.

But if neither side budges, the situation could eventually grind to a halt. The library board currently only has four seated members. It needs at least three to have a quorum in order to conduct legal meetings. Meadors acknowledges that, on a long enough time line, the board could slowly dwindle down to the point it could not conduct business.
White said he’d like to avoid that scenario.

"It’s a mess. I would certainly welcome discussion, but at this point I just can’t bow down and go along with something I disagree with."