It is our duty to provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision at the polls. Below is the text from the Library Director’s video message about the Millage Renewal.

As you know there is an existing library millage up for renewal on the ballot Saturday, April 28th. This millage is 1.61 mills, the same rate approved by voters back in 2008.

The City Parish Council set this millage at 1.48 for your 2017 tax bill. In fact, all three of our 2017 millages were collected in 2017 below the voted-on rate.

Our mission has always been to enhance the quality of life of our community by providing free, equal, cost effective library services that meet the needs of our diverse community for information, lifelong learning, recreation and cultural enrichment.

Our duty is to provide you with the information you need to make an informed decisions on everything you do.

Our community is growing and our latest project is our West Regional Library. The funds for the construction of this library came out of library savings, not bond money.

Those funds were first put in the library’s capital budget in 2013. The dedicated project funds have been carried forward as fund balance earning interest while we wait for that building to be completed.

We are getting closer but I can’t write the check on the building until the budget year 2018/2019 is under way.

We currently have several major, multi-year projects in progress. Revenues remain in our fund balance until bills are paid, and over half of our funds are already allocated for projects that are underway. The remaining portion is what allows our system to improve and expand without needing to ask for additional bond money or a new millage to expand or operate. It is good business sense to have a fund balance.

We thank all the citizens of Lafayette parish that can see through the misleading comments printed on slick, glossy mail outs. Have a great Festival weekend and remember to vote. Thank You.” * To read the Library Millage Renewal’s FAQs, visit http://lafayettepubliclibrary.org/millage.