Northeast Arkansas county voters reject proposal to restore library funding

Jonesboro, Arkansas, voters on Tuesday turned down an attempt to restore library funding lost in a referendum two years ago. This photo shows young-adult appropriate books on a library shelf in Alabama. (Alabama Reflector Photo by Stew Milne)

Jonesboro voters on Tuesday chose not to restore a 1-mill increase to the Craighead County-Jonesboro Public Library Tuesday that would have replaced income lost two years ago when residents cut the library's millage from 2 mills to 1 mill.

Tuesday's defeat means the library will likely lose about $2 million for next year, director Vanessa Adams said,

Complete, but unofficial results from county officials:

For the 1-mill restoration — 9,527

Against the restoration — 14,358

"We weren't really surprised by the outcome," Adams said Tuesday evening. "We didn't do much to promote the [restoration], but we didn't initiate it in the first place."

The Jonesboro library lost half of its tax funding during the 2022 general election following local protest over a gay pride book display in the library in June 2022. The display, a yearly feature at the Jonesboro library, was moved from a remote area near the children's library to a more noticeable, well-traveled spot near the center of the main library due to construction remodeling.

There were actually two contests on the 2022 ballot. County residents voted on their millage rate while those living in Jonesboro cast ballots in a separate election.

Then, Craighead County voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of cutting the millage collection in half. The nearly 18,000 Jonesboro voters who cast ballots in their election approved the cut by only 48 votes — 9,017 votes to 8,969 votes.

Earlier, protests also surfaced when the library featured a transgender author who spoke with youngsters about writing and her novels. Library officials asked police to provide protection for the event after receiving threats made to the library and its workers if the author did speak.

Later, proponents of the millage decrease claimed when offering the millage cut on the ballot that the library had a surplus of more than $6 million and did not need the full 2 mills to operate each year. The 2 mills the library had been collecting earned about $40 a year for a home assessed at $100,000.

Voters increased the millage rate to 2 mills in 1994 to help build three library branches.

Adams said she had to cut 15 employees — most part-time workers — and reduce hours of both the main library and its branches following the defeat in 2022. The library has branches in Brookland, Caraway, Lake City, Harrisburg, Marked Tree, Monette and Weiner.

The library also reduced purchasing of both nonfiction and fiction books and did not repair a failing heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

'We can't operate the way it is," Adams said of the cutback.

Had the millage been restored Tuesday, library officials planned to resurface the Jonesboro library's parking lot, hire a full-time maintenance worker, do landscaping around the main building, expand its outreach programs and hire additional staff members.

Adams said the library will use its reserves to continue operating.

"We'll have to tap into our reserves to keep all our services going as they are now," she said.

The library has $5 million in reserves that it can use.

She said she was encouraged by the number of voters who favored restoring the tax.

"We had a lot of support, but we didn't win," she said.

Library officials will develop a five-year plan soon, basing their proposals on the additional loss of yearly revenues.

Adams said she will not attempt to place another restoration issue on the ballot for the 2025 general election.

"We want to see how we do with what we have before we put it on the ballot again," she said.

Voters in Lawrence County were offered a similar measure Tuesday in deciding if they wanted to cut a mill off the library's yearly collections. If voters favored the cutback, it would mean a loss of $250,000 in funding, said library director Ashley Burris.

Early voting and absentee vote tallies indicated the tax would not be cut, said Lawrence County election officials.