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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > September > 06
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Editorial: Strickland not only problem facing libraries
2009 ELECTIONS
“As a child, my number one best friend was the librarian in my grade school. I actually believed all those books belonged to her.” — Erma Bombeck
Here is where people, One frequently finds, Lower their voices And raise their minds. — Richard Armour, “Library”
You know you live in troubled times when public libraries are big in the news. More typically, voices are low not only in libraries, but in discussion of libraries.
Generations of Americans have grown up taking them for granted. Readers — and people who want their children to be readers — have loved them. Non-readers have seldom been thought to hold anything against them.
But now, thanks in large part to the bad economy and to Gov. Ted Strickland, Ohio’s libraries are caught up in controversy about taxes.
The governor, needing to make dramatic last-minute changes in his proposed budget for the next two years, came at libraries amazingly hard. He wanted to cut state funding by 30 percent, even though libraries were already absorbing a recent 20 percent cut. The word “revolution” has been used about such cuts (and increases in spending) in other realms, even when they are enacted far more slowly.
In truth, though, the economy and the politicians aren’t the only problems facing libraries, are they? Plenty of people who are not politicians are skeptical about role of libraries today.
They might point out, for example, that finding the quotations at the beginning of this editorial didn’t require a trip to a library or a call to a librarian. It required only a little finger wiggling at a keyboard tied to a computer. The finger wiggling probably didn’t take five minutes.
They might raise questions about whether providing movies is a legitimate role for tax-supported libraries. They might argue that other institutions could provide the computers and Internet-access that libraries offer to jobless and financially strapped people.
And they might note that, after all, the library Erma Bombeck loved was her school library, not a public library.
They might say we could live with fewer libraries overall because some are remarkably close to each other. (In Montgomery County, there are three on a very short stretch of Far Hills Avenue.)
They might note that philanthropic money is available for libraries. From Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates — with many local figures around the country scattered in between — public benefactors have seen public libraries as worthy recipients.
At the heart of their concern is taxes. But let’s look at that.
In library systems across the Dayton area, people are being laid off, hours are being curtailed, charges to the public are being raised or instituted, programs are being ended, purchases are being reduced, and employees are forgoing pay raises and accepting furloughs.
(In the Dayton system, for example, the librarians’ union, to its credit, has agreed to losing every other Thursday of work. Certainly, the librarians don’t like closing their doors or losing the pay.)
And yet, even in these worst of times, the levies the libraries want to pass in the November election are between half a mill and 1.75 mills.
Greene County and Franklin-Springboro are both going for 1 mill, which they respectively say is about $25 or $30 a year for each $100,000 of assessed value of a house.
Wright Memorial in Oakwood is seeking half a mill. Tipp City, 0.75 mills. Troy-Miami County 0.6 mills. The Dayton and Montgomery County system, 1.75 mills. Lebanon and Waynesville are also seeking 1 mill. In some places, the possibility of closure is in the air.
A lot of taxpayers can make up a mill’s worth of money by simply resolving to use the library more.
Still, taxpayers have a right to expect to be met halfway. Questions about whether library systems can be downsized, while still meeting modern needs, are legitimate. Questions about the effort to raise philanthropic money are, too (though such money often funds specific projects, rather than providing operating funds).
Public libraries are, and should be, a cherished part of the American scene. Maintaining the storied tradition is a partly political task, requiring that the libraries themselves to convince people they are a modern necessity and are adapting to modern economic realities.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Elections, Martin Gottlieb, Social Services, Suburban Communities
Ellen Belcher: What if Riordan had said no?
If Tim Riordan were a small person, he wouldn’t be coming back to Dayton to step in when City Manager Rashad Young leaves next month for Greensboro, N.C.
When he was first elected mayor of Dayton, now-Congressman Mike Turner wanted the old guard, high-level administrators at City Hall gone. He pegged them as Democrats (though they saw themselves as professional administrators first and foremost).
Riordan was one of the people who eventually was pushed aside, exiled to the airport by a new city manager, Bill Estabrook, who was decidedly Turner’s guy. In time, Riordan went on to have a fine career in Cincinnati, always keeping in touch with friends and former colleagues in Dayton.
Now Dayton has brought him back, needing its one-time finance director to figure out how to deal with a daunting $15 million to $20 million budget deficit.
Imagine the pillow talk with his wife when he was weighing whether to come out of semi-retirement.
The fact that he said yes makes the point that Turner missed back when: Truly professional public administrators can roll with the politicians. They know their obligation is to the institution and the people whom voters put into office. The good ones believe in taking orders — or quitting in the face of stupid ones.
A few points about this juncture:
Young has talent. He’s a loss. But Dayton is an amazing place. This community is almost inexplicably resilient, regardless of who’s been in important offices. It has been taking punches for almost 40 years, yet look around.
As deep as some problems are, there are always good people tackling problems and trying to fix things. Important, impressive amenities are still here, still being looked after, and new ones have continued to be built as Dayton and the larger community have shrunk.
(Of course, many of these investments have occurred with less of the required money coming from Dayton or its city government.)
No matter how awful things have been, resignation and abandonment just haven’t been in the water.
The opportunity Young’s leaving creates is that Dayton has an interim person doing a job he can afford to lose. As with Dayton schools’ energetic superintendent, Kurt Stanic, Riordan needs this work like he needs a hole in his head. That gives him license to act and lead without fear or favor.
Riordan is not a shrinking violent. He’s not coming here to mark time and leave the next person a mess that’s bigger than the one he knows is his for however many months.
He’s had experience with tough times. Fifteen years ago, Riordan was acting Dayton city manager for a time. He was in charge when the city cut $8 million to balance its budget, but that effort involved eliminating a mere 78 jobs. (The cost-cutting included more than just cutting people.)
This year the city’s employment is 1,409, which is 125 fewer than last year, and almost 500 fewer than in 2001.
If all $20 million of the coming shortfall had to be saved by eliminating jobs, Dayton would have to cut more than 200 positions.
That scenario — an unlikely one — is complicated by the fact that Dayton negotiated labor agreements with its firefighters and service workers saying that, in exchange for wage freezes and furlough days, the city will not lay off any of them through May 2010.
Not all the facts, however, are negative. Dayton is offering an early-retirement plan, which will result in some people leaving voluntarily and some savings.
And there’s this: Ohio’s police and firefighters have a great gig that allows them to freeze their pension benefits and take an annuity instead of adding to their pension. To get into the program, however, they have to leave after a set number of years.
In 2011, 59 of the 160 Dayton police and firefighters who signed up for this deal must retire. Some are expected to go early, in 2010.
That’s not to say it’s good that police and firefighters are retiring; but it makes saving through restructuring somewhat easier.
One option that’s not out there is tapping its reserves, which Dayton did heavily in 2001 and 2002 — Turner’s last year as mayor and Rhine McLin’s first. The policy is to keep six to 10 weeks’ worth of city expenses on hand, and today there’s barely cash for six weeks in the bank.
Quite possibly only someone who doesn’t need the job would step into Dayton’s spot. Lucky for Dayton that Riordan forgives and forgets.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: City of Dayton, Columns, Ellen Belcher, Law Enforcement and Public Safety, Miami Valley Politics
