Library Board mill levy vote
Dear Editor,
The Rio Blanco County Meeker Regional Library Board is currently controlled by three new board members, relative newcomers, who appear to know little about Rio Blanco County economics. The mill levy, set years ago before the energy boom, is 2.03 mills. With the energy boom in the early 2000’s, the tax base exploded and, together with the Board’s astute financial management, the mill levy produced so much revenue that the library district could purchase the building at 5th and Main instead of languishing in a corner to the Fairfield Center and provide a wide array of services and programs. The levy and good management also eventually produced reserves of $13.9 million. In 2023 the state legislature, primarily to provide short term relief to Front Range homeowners with suddenly inflated home values while avoiding Tabor problems, passed a law that permits a taxing district temporarily – for one year at a time – to reduce the mill levy. Without this law, a reduction in mill levy is permanent and increasing it requires taxpayer approval. Since the Library budget did not require all of the revenues the official mill levy would produce, last year the old library board temporarily reduced the mill levy by half to 1.016 mills, a rate that produced just enough revenue to meet budgeted expenses without digging into savings.
The three gentlemen new to the board, however, appear to be particularly distressed by the size of the reserve account; Mr Moffitt even called it “obscene.” Last week, against the recommendations of the Library’s CPA and the other two board members to use last year’s rate, they set the mill levy at .1 mill – Point One mill – and the budget at $511,211. As the certification to the County Assessor reveals, that will produce only $50,327 in revenue. The shortfall of $460, 894 will be drawn from the $13.9 million in reserves.
What is a mill levy?
A mill levy is a property tax rate expressed in mills, where one mill equals one-tenth of a cent (0.001). To calculate property tax, the assessed value of a property is multiplied by the mill levy rate. For example, if the mill levy is 10 mills and the property’s assessed value is $100,000, the property tax would be $1,000. Mill levies are typically used by local governments to fund services such as schools, public safety, and infrastructure.
If nothing ever changed — prices never increased, the tax base never decreased, capital expenditures were unnecessary, and the state tax law remained the same – it would take almost 30 years to exhaust the reserves at point 1 mill. But none of that is true. The risk is particularly acute in RBC where 87% of the tax base is attributable to the declining oil and gas industry, and only 7% to homeowners. Revenues have already declined. Even if economic decline is not as precipitous as the increase was, library reserves will be exhausted in far fewer than 30 years. One looks for better fiscal responsibility next year.
Sandra Besseghini, Mike Grady, Kathleen Sullivan, Toby Leavitt. Peggy Strate, Bob Dorsett, Michelle Mobley, Robert Gardner, JoAnn Goss-Gardner, Michelle Bonilla, Lonnie White
Meeker
Letter of support for the Meeker Public Library
Dear Editor,
We the undersigned express our strong support for the staff and programs at our public library and voice opposition to efforts by some members of the sitting Library Board to limit those programs and to censor library offerings.
The library is much more than its books. Over the past three decades, under the leadership of librarians Mike Bartlett and Kristina Selby, the library has implemented programs and services of enormous benefit to the community. To cite just a few:
• The library facilitates public school library acquisitions and library programs. Meeker Elementary School and Barone Middle School libraries exist because of assistance from the Town Library.
• Regular story tellers and other special programs at the main library delight young readers.
• The library provides facilities and lessons for craft projects, quilting, and other hands-on projects.
• The library serves as repository for public records.
• The library, in collaboration with the Historical Society, documents local history. A recent project places that history online.
• The library invites authors to discuss their work.
• The library provides space for public meetings.
• The library offers special presentations by speakers on a variety of topics.
• The library hosts permanent works of art and also occasional galleries, e.g. for the Sheep Dog Trials.
• In keeping with its educational mission, the library sponsors student expeditions that have enriched the students themselves and, in return, the wider community.
• The library opens its facilities to other public services such as the River Watch project, legal counseling and financial counseling.
• The library led the way introducing new technologies and educating the public in their use. Among other accomplishments, the library:
— was the first of our public entities to provide public access to computers and the internet
— offers printers and fax for public use
— built a state-of-the art maker-space, where students and adults alike can develop their own projects
— installed state-of-the art video and audio production facilities
— installed 3D printers and software for 3D design, then made those technologies available in our public schools
— provides language-learning modules
— purchased state-of-the art science experiments and offered supervised lessons for home-schoolers and the general public
— purchased robotics kits and, in collaboration with the Recreation District, developed programs to teach robotics and related computer programming skills to young students. The library then extended those programs to our public schools.
In all these endeavors, library staff welcome visitors warmly. Kids find a safe refuge in the library after school and on weekends. Adults find a welcome refuge to gather with friends for conversation, quiet reading, or work on a collaborative project. Library staff knowledgeably assist everyone accessing information on its computer systems, on the shelves, or via interlibrary loan services from other shelves.
Those shelves were Ben Franklin’s notion at the beginning of our republic. Quite a notion: a lending library, to provide equal access to knowledge for everyone. Before Ben’s bookshelves, only the wealthy few could afford a book. The public library opened the world to everybody. The Founding Fathers and Founding Mothers knew full well that might be a dangerous proposition. Open the doors to the new ideas and people might find ideas you don’t agree with. But they reasoned, rightly, that the opportunities were worth that risk. Democracies thrive only when a variety of ideas get discussed and simmered and stewed. They trusted the best ideas would bubble to the top.
On the shelves these days you will find copious documentation to substantiate that fact. Societies, like ecosystems, function best with diversity. Let’s keep it that way. Provide a library with a wide variety of facilities and programs and books. Fund it sufficiently to expand those offerings.
Signed,
Bob Dorsett, Mike Frazier, Debbie Frazier, Toby Leavitt. Stacy Hudelson, Sandra Besseghini, Peggy Strate, Sherry Mathews, Albert Krueger, Mary K. Krueger, Robert Gardner, JoAnn Goss-Gardner, Mary Carroll
Meeker
Thank you from Firm Foundation Childcare
Dear Editor,
Firm Foundation Childcare would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Meeker community for their incredible support and generosity during our first year in operation. It has been a joy and privilege to serve 30 families in our community while employing seven local community members. Our little students are thriving and learning so much every day, and it’s all thanks to the collective efforts of this amazing community.
We are especially grateful for the generous contributions from The Church at Meeker Family, Natural Soda, the Freeman Fairfield Trust, Pioneers Medical Center, CHFA, and United Way. Your support has been instrumental in creating and maintaining a successful early learning center right here in Meeker!
If you or your organization would like to support Firm Foundation Childcare, we welcome your generosity. Please mail checks to PO Box 663, Meeker, CO 81641 or call us at 970-878-3111 to learn more about giving online.
Thank you again for believing in our mission to provide a strong foundation for the children of Meeker!
Firm Foundation Childcare
Meeker
