This November, I voted to approve the passage of Washoe County Question 1 (WC-1), the ballot resolution that supports funding for our Washoe County libraries. I had read the briefs explaining the ballot initiatives and was satisfied with the prospect of paying an additional 2 cents for every $100 of my assessed property to fund our libraries. Like most of us are now aware, my reading of the bill was incorrect. Washoe County residents will be taxed regardless of how we voted; we were just giving up our voice on where those particular 2 cents go.
I acknowledge the irony that poor reading comprehension landed a decisive blow against the funding of our libraries. However, it must be noted the narrow margin at which this bill failed: by only 3 percentage points, or approximately 7,400 of the 498,000 Washoe County residents. How many of those who voted no on WC-1 were, like me, under the impression that this was another tax, another financial burden, another invisible fee by invisible hands taking money out of our pockets? How many of those no-voters who, like me, now have a better understanding of the actual substance of WC-1 would have voted yes instead?
Sadly, the time for misunderstanding ballot resolutions has passed. The decision on how to appropriate the estimated $4.5 million annually that had been dedicated to libraries rests in the hands of our Washoe County commissioners. And while I trust that our fairly elected officials will continue to appropriately fund our libraries, I fear the motives of future politicians who don’t comprehend the value of libraries. Because as we as a country know all too well, if the law does not guarantee something, it will be gone.
Libraries are important. To those unconvinced: I could appeal to your economic sensibilities and cite this study stating that home prices within a quarter mile of a library go up an average of $9,630. I could appeal to your civic pride and speak on how libraries are the last of the third places in our communities — somewhere besides home or work that you can socialize without spending 2 cents for every $100 of assessed property value. Or I could appeal to you personally, with my own story that my family chose our home in Sparks due to its proximity to the Spanish Springs Library. My wife and I walk our school-age children to the library, just like my dad walked my brothers and I to the Yakima Central Library in Yakima, Washington, when I was a boy.
But instead of arguing any of these points to convince the unconvinced that libraries are important, I will simply remind us that these buildings belong to us. Libraries, and everything they represent, are a birthright to us as Americans. It is one of the few things that fulfill the bright American promise of E pluribus unum. Libraries serve all of us, regardless of race, color, class or creed.
Literal pennies from each of us go to funding and supporting these cornerstones of the community and, whether fully comprehended or not, the failure of WC-1 removed the guarantee to that funding. If it’s not guaranteed, it’s gone. What will fill the void if we let libraries fade into memory? Fidget spinners? TikTok? Book lice?
I do not want libraries to fall away from the American fabric as so many of our established institutions fade into memory: the morning newspaper, trust in the media, fireside chats that don’t incite half of us into faux frenzy and the other half into glazed apathy. Libraries are important and while we have voted away the guarantee of their funding, please let us not follow through on trends and let go of them completely.
David Hewitt is a veteran, family man and landscape architect practicing in Reno.
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