Saline County votes to keep their library fully funded

A proposal to cut funding to the Saline County library by a third was narrowly defeated on Tuesday.

The complete but unofficial vote was 20,889 in favor of cutting the library’s funding and 21,729 against.

The Saline County Quorum Court voted in May to place a measure on the November ballot, giving voters the opportunity to cut the library’s tax base of 1.7 mills to 1.1 mills, which would have amounted to a loss of $1.7 million. 

Quorum Court members have claimed that because of Saline County’s population growth, the library’s millage could be reduced without harming its operation.

Adam Webb, head of the Arkansas Library Association, an organization that supports libraries, said, however, that if the library lost the projected $1.7 million, it would have to close its doors in two years if steep cutbacks were not implemented.

The attempt to reduce the funding has its roots in a disagreement that Saline County Judge Matt Brumley and Republicans on the Quorum Court had three years with Patty Hector, director of the library. Hector ignored their efforts to control where she placed certain books in the library, leading to her firing. 

Hector sued Brumley in federal court, saying she had been unlawfully fired for speaking out against censorship and defending the public’s right to read. The county eventually settled with her for $275,000.