Charlotte Mecklenburg Future of the Library Task Force Walks on Eggshells

The library task force's tricky path. (Charlotte Observer, 3/17/2011)

Excerpt: Our nationally honored library system has been all but gutted, victim of plunging county tax revenues. The county commissioners last spring, in something like desperation, took machetes to the library system's budget. Over two years the system has lost 39 percent of its county funds and has had to lay off hundreds.

The task force report bluntly states the sad reality: "The public library that was selected for 'the nation's highest honor for libraries and museums' in 2006 no longer exists."

That helps explain the time the task force took to word-smith its report. Its 17 members, meeting since October, must negotiate a tricky and treacherous path. They want to make clear how important they believe the library is and how much it needs more money. But they don't want what they write to anger the people who'll decide: county commissioners and staff.

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