Closing library was choice, not necessity

But it was different this time than when Mayor Fink closed libraries. This time, it was by choice, not necessity.

Mayor Fink faced a real economic crash and financial emergency in the 1980s. Mayor Dan Sullivan faces a tight budget situation, like most previous mayors, which he has turned into a serious revenue shortfall by his own decisions.

Sullivan has reduced the tax cap by about $20 million in the two budgets he has written for the city, roughly $10 million in his first year and another $10 million this year. These reductions are cumulative; the tax cap can never be increased to recover that annual revenue.

Keeping the Samson-Dimond Library open next year would have cost about $560,000. The owner of the building had offered free rent; the city would have needed only to staff the space and keep the books there.

Mayor Sullivan and six members of the Assembly turned down that offer. Those voting to close the only library between 36th Avenue and Girdwood included Chris Birch and Jennifer Johnston, who represent the area.

In an emergency like the one Fink faced, making such a decision may show the toughness you need to get through hard times. But today, when closing a library saves one-tenth of a percent of a $435 million budget, you have to wonder why anyone would do it.

No one's tax bill will go down because of this decision. The amount of money is too small to be seen in the mill rate. Taxes jump up and down much more due to routine end-of-year accounting adjustments on the nearly $1 billion spent annually by our local government and school district.

But the library served 40,000 residents. It was a critical information source for hundreds of people a day. Our libraries are the community's most used facilities. They provide recreation and a place away from home for families with kids, and they provide a critical lifeline and source of economic equality for people trying to work their way up. And usage is rising, fast.

I don't know why Mayor Sullivan has chosen the libraries for his harshest cuts.

Last year, knowing Anchorage's libraries were already staffed 40 percent below other cities our size, Sullivan dealt them the deepest cuts among city departments directly serving the public, a reduction of 11 percent. When the Assembly added back a small portion of the library money, he vetoed that amendment, only to lose a veto override.

This year he was back. The members of the public attending his citizen budget meetings said they would willingly pay extra to support our libraries. Sullivan responded by calling for the closure of Sam- son-Dimond, even though Anchorage already had a third fewer library branches than other communities our size.

The Anchorage Public Library system will survive. Community support is as strong as for any institution in town.

But I have to ask, halfway through his term, what is Dan Sullivan's vision for Anchorage? While making his own budget woes progressively worse, he has blamed public employees and chipped away at popular programs. Other than have us be mad at the unions and mad at his predecessor, what does Sullivan want for our town?

Some of us want a city we can be proud of. A city with a positive leader. And we want our library back.

Charles Wohlforth served six years on the Anchorage Assembly, from 1993 to 1999, five of them as Budget and Finance chair. This column reflects his own views, not those of any of the community organizations of which he is a member.