Polk Co. Voters Face Library Wheel Tax

On Voting Day it is do or die for a Polk County Library.

"Our three largest grants will go away the day after the vote fails," says Polk County 'Friends Of the Library' President Jenny Rogers.

For 7 years Rogers and her Friends have campaigned for a public library system. The group raised close to one million dollars for two new libraries in Benton and Copper Hill.

"We like our children here deserve the same type of oppurtunities for learning and advancement that every other child in the state has," she says.

Despite more than 900,000 dollars in the bank, county commissioners said they couldn't afford the library's operational costs. So next week, voters will decide if they want to pick up the tab. An 11 dollar wheel tax will be on Tuesday's ballots. If it's passed, every time you register your tag in Polk County, 11 of your dollars will go to the library.

"We've put countless hours into it. You know every grant took a lot of time. So there is a lot at stake riding on Tuesday's vote," says Rogers. 

Rogers has received a lot of feed back from voters about Tuesday's referendum. And she says nobody is sitting on a fence. People are either very much for the library, or they're very much against it.

"I think they out to do away with it and have no library in Polk County. Bradley County is just over there and that just adds more taxes," says Polk County resident Gene Hicks.

" I don't know anybody around here who goes to a library around here. Really don't," says John Epperson, a voter.

"Public libraries are a people's university," says Rogers. "They're the only place in any community where people of any age or any economic background have free access to a world of knowledge."

If voters say no on Tuesday, Rogers says it will be the final nail in the coffin of a Polk County Public Library System.