Members of the Crawford County Library District Board voted during their annual tax levy hearing Aug. 24 to continue their current tax rate for the upcoming year.

While most of the 20 or so attendees favored maintaining the current tax levy, there was at least one citizen and one Library District board member who favored reducing it. The rate of 20 cents per $100 of assessed valuation has been the same since voters approved it with a 70.5 percent margin in 2019.

Bourbon resident Cathy Boero spoke at the hearing. Boero previously questioned the wages of library district’s employees and the amount of money in district savings in an Aug. 18 editorial published in The Cuba Free Press.

“Employee salaries have doubled over the last five years, in part due to increased staffing to be open more hours for the public,” Boero said in the editorial. “Due to the minimum wage increase, it was necessary to increase certain employees’ wages by $0.25 to meet the $15 minimum wage. However, the library board went beyond that and decided to increase everyone’s salary by $1.25 per hour PLUS a 2.7 percent COLA raise.

“The majority of the library’s revenue is from our tax dollars,” she wrote, adding that the board has put over $500,000 a year into interest-bearing Certificates of Deposit. 

“While this is a great thing, it also shows that we could lower the tax rate without losing any programming,” Boero concluded.

Boero spoke during the citizen participation period during the tax hearing and began by expressing her appreciation for the library district.

“First of all, I would just like to say that I am totally supportive of our library. I cannot commend the library board enough for what they have done in the past eight years and brought the library to where it is with the services offered.”

Boero then said she thought that the library district could still grow even if the tax levy was decreased.

“My point is, you are operating at a place now not only where you can maintain and sustain what you’re doing, but you can also grow with what you’re doing too. You’re doing fine. You are not even close to being in trouble,” Boero concluded.

Amy England, the Crawford County Library District director, said that Boero’s claims about library employees’ wages weren’t accurate.

“Employee salaries have not doubled in the past five years,” England said.

“In 2021, the lowest-paid clerk salary rate was $10.35. This year, that rate is $16.43. For comparison, the minimum wage in 2021 was $10.30, and this year it’s $15 an hour. So the difference in minimum wage between 2025 and 2026 was from $13.75 an hour to $15, and that was an 8.4 percent increase. We appreciate what our employees do, and we feel like it was important for their wages to change proportionally going into this year. With an increase like that, we aren’t looking at increases of that amount going forward.”

England also disputed Boero’s claim that the board had put over $500,000 a year into interest-bearing Certificates of Deposit. 

“The library district has not put over $500,000 a year into CDs for the past couple of years,” England said. “We do have reserves over the eight years between 2018 and 2025. We have achieved the reserve balance that we have, which is $1.3 million, through investments in CDs and the accounting interest earned on those. If you average it out, that’s about $168,000 per year, but it’s not 500,000 in two years. Costs do continue to increase overall, and technology needs include a growing demand for electronic materials, and there’s a lot of expense involved in that.”

England then said that the library district had purchased the buildings used by the Bourbon and Steelville branches and is saving up in hopes of purchasing the Cuba branch building.

Several citizens spoke in favor of keeping the tax levy as is, saying that the amount they are currently paying in library taxes seemed fair given the amount of resources the library offers.

“If we’re doing well and we’re growing, which seems important for our community and our community’s growth, why do we want to roll back when we know we’re going to go up?” Jack Bowles, an area resident, asked. “We know things are going to change. We know prices are going to go up. I spend 40-some dollars a year on this. That’s only a mere $3.60 a month. I waste way more on coffee than that. You know, it’s not even a birthday present for my grandson. So I don’t understand if it’s not broken, why fix it.”

Jennifer Moreland, the president of the Cuba R-2 District Board of Education, said that the library board’s savings aren’t as high as they may seem.

“Your employment costs are out of this world. That’s really going to be a lot of your budget right there,” Moreland said. “You’re looking at $1.3 million in reserve. I know that sounds like a lot of money, but it’s not. When you start getting into building costs, you’re going to buy property. A million dollars 10 years ago is not a million dollars today. It’s really not a lot of money.”

The Library District board voted 4-1 to maintain its 20 cent tax levy for the next year. Vice President Julie Jensen was the only board member who voted to lower the tax levy.