Dear Friends of Arizona's Libraries,
I don't believe we've met before, but in my "former life" I served as the Casa Grande City Librarian for 26 years before retiring in 2003 (in order to run for Pinal County Supervisor). During my tenure with the Library, I also had the pleasure and honor of serving as AzLA President and PLD President (as well as other assignments).
As part of my current responsibilities as County Supervisor, I regularly follow and advocate on legislative proposals of interest to Pinal County. When the legislature attempted to cap the revenues of secondary taxing districts (i.e. library districts) last year, I worked with the County Supervisors Association and others to defeat the measure. Although we were successful -- in concert with AzLA, I might add -- then, there are two measures running concurrently in both chambers today that once again threaten the support counties can give their public libraries via county library districts. HB 2586 & SB 1256 both promise to remove local authority from the library & information funding equation and will further exacerbate the funding challenges our public libraries face.
I have attached some talking points about these two bills which are, in my opinion, really bad public policy. I hope you will be able to use them in your efforts this session. I am preparing to send a similar email to those Friends of the Library organizations I can identify and/or to public libraries urging them to pass this information on to their Friends groups.
NEWS FLASH: We are hoping that you can send another action alert to your library members on Rep. Yarbrough’s HB 2586, the special district levy cap proposal. When the bill is heard in COW, Rep. Konopnicki plans to offer a floor amendment that removes library districts, as well as other county-controlled districts, from the legislation. He is supported by several rural legislators who understand the problematic impacts of the bill, but communication from your members is needed to shore up support for his efforts. We received some signals that Rep. Konopnicki is receiving pressure to remove all county-controlled districts except libraries, so libraries must signal their opposition to the proposal in order to be protected. In particular, we are hoping to get our message in to Reps. Tobin, Mason, Burns, and McClure.
Thank you for all that you do, and for being a part of the fight to keep Arizona's libraries funded and open to the public.
Sincerely,
David Snider
David Snider, Supervisor
Pinal County District 3
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