Philly Mayor’s Sales Tax Would Avert Library Closings

Philly Mayor’s Sales Tax Hike Would Avert Library Closings

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has proposed a 1% addition to the city’s sales tax over the next three years that would preserve essential services, including the 11 library branches that he had targeted for closure last year.

The tax hike is part of a $3.8-billion budget proposal and a five-year plan to address the city’s fiscal crisis that also includes property tax increases, the elimination of 250 municipal positions, and changes to the city’s pension and health-care plans, the Associated Press reported March 19.

Nutter said that if the sales tax hike fails to win the necessary approval by the state legislature or if unions balk at making concessions, a contingency plan would include laying off 256 police recruits, closing fire engine companies, reducing library and recreation center hours, closing a health center, and cutting back trash collection.

The mayor’s plan to close the branches on the last day of 2008 prompted an outpouring of public concern and objections from the city council. In response to an emergency motion filed by three council members and a lawsuit filed by residents and a municipal-employees union, a judge ordered a halt to the closings December 30.

Posted on March 21, 2009. Discuss.

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Genevieve Trainor writes: “The Guinness World Record holder for Most Prolific Book Thief is Ottumwa (Iowa’s) Stephen Blumberg. The 23,600 volumes he accumulated between the 1970s and his arrest in March of 1990 were all stashed in his 17-room home. Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, got involved with Blumberg as part of the FBI’s efforts to return the stolen manuscripts and rare books to their museums and libraries. Referred to as the Omaha Project, the information science proving ground involved four weeks, 44 catalogers and reference librarians and 600 volunteer hours to determine who might be the rightful owners.”

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