Wyoming: Natrona County Public Library: Voters say ‘No’

From the Casper Star Tribune:

In a contest even tighter than its 2008 counterpart, voters said “no” Tuesday to a proposed 1-cent special purpose sales tax that would have funded a new public library facility in downtown Casper.
Library tax opponents outvoted pro-special purpose sales tax voters by 588 votes — an almost 2 percent margin. Unofficial final tallies showed 16,250 votes against the library tax and 15,662 votes for it.
The 1-cent sales tax would have temporarily increased Natrona County’s sales tax to a total of 6 cents on every dollar. Prescriptions, gasoline and food would have been exempt from the statutorily temporary tax, which, according to Wyoming law regulating special purpose sales taxes, would have dissolved after the project’s $29.7 million was raised.
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A recurring hurdle for library officials while publicizing the library initiative was a widespread belief that the statutorily temporary sales tax would, somehow, not be temporary.
“People are concerned that the tax will not go away, and that, somehow, politicians will extend it in some way,” library Director Bill Nelson said recently. “It will go away.”

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