From Deseret News archives:
Council OKs tax hike to fund S.L. libraries
Whether that tax increase will be $1.3 million or $1.7 million remains to be seen, but a majority of the City Council on Thursday voted to support one of those two increases. The tax increase will pay for the Salt Lake City Library System, which has suffered financially as property tax rates have stagnated the past three years.
Without a tax hike, the library will have to cut hours and might have to close its new City Library downtown for one day a week, Library Systems director Nancy Tessman said.
Faced with the choice of cutting services or a tax increase, the council chose the increase Thursday in an informal vote. The final vote will come June 17 when the council decides which increase it will approve — the $1.7 million increase the library wants or the smaller $1.3 million increase that some council members favor.
Some council members have raised concerns that city businesses, many of whom are struggling, will have to pay the lion's share of the increase. Business would pay 61 percent of the $1.7 million increase with residents paying 39 percent, according to city documents.
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