New Knight Foundation Survey Shows “Most Miami-Dade Residents Want Libraries Funded — One Way or Another”

Findings from a new Knight Foundation survey released this afternoon.
From Summary Blog Post (via Knight Foundation Blog):

Sometimes, when researching public attitudes toward libraries, it’s important to read between the lines.
That was clear from a comprehensive survey of likely voters in Miami-Dade County commissioned by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce with support from Knight Foundation that showed that 80 percent oppose a significant cut to the library budget, while 13 percent support it.
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The survey, conducted by Bendixen Amandi International, was designed to delve deeper on results from an earlier survey by the same firm that focused solely on the question of whether the library portion of property taxes should be increased. The headline from that survey: A majority oppose raising taxes.
Even when told that the budget deficit could be up to $20 million, 67 percent of respondents wanted the county to find a solution that preserved library funding, either by increasing the library portion of the property tax (34 percent) or cutting spending for other county services (33 percent), while 22 percent favored cutting library services to cover the deficit and 11 percent offered no opinion.
Miami-Dade commissioners are readying to set a preliminary property-tax rate on July 15.

Major Findings

Full Survey Results

Fernand Amandi on Libraries

Filed under: Funding, Libraries, News