Majority of the voters of New Orleans Saturday approved an initiative to raise property taxes for providing more money for the Public Library system.
Incomplete returns showed the tax measure passing by a margin of more than 9,000 votes - 75 percent to 25 percent, with 13,911 voting for and 4,681 voting against.
The request for a 25-year, 2.5-mill tax that would raise a projected $8.25 million a year for the library system — money that city and library officials say is necessary for the system to continue operating its 14 branches and to reopen one that has been closed for nearly 10 years.
The tax will be in addition to the 3.14 mills now dedicated to the library. That tax expires at the end of 2021.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who had joined with many community groups, City Council members and the library system in supporting the measure, tweeted, “Thank you to voters for supporting New Orleans’ public library system. Now it can expand hours & services and remain anchors of communities.”
Library system executive director Charles Brown also thanked voters for their support late Saturday.
“I would like to recognize the wisdom and support of the voters and residents of New Orleans, along with the hundreds of volunteers who helped throughout this campaign,” he said in a statement.
The public library system in New Orleans may face disastrous situation without any such approval as the Library officials said that without more money, the system will exhaust its reserves by the middle of 2016. The system’s financial situation is said to be so dire that it might have had to close one or more of the 14 branches that it operates.
The new millage will give the system enough money to extend the hours and days of operation at all its branches, library system Executive Director Charles Brown has said. It also will allow the system to purchase more books, e-books, music and videos for its permanent collections. The tax increase also can support additional outreach efforts and services, like a mobile library and computer classes.
The library has been supporting itself over the past three years by joining the money raised from the existing millage with funds drawn from a reserve account accumulated when many of the city’s libraries were closed after Hurricane Katrina. That surplus will be exhausted by mid-2016, officials have said.