'No' to more taxes for Sugar Grove Library

The Sugar Grove Library will have to continue to make do with the property taxes it gets, because voters Tuesday refused to give it more.

For the 13th time in 33 years, voters said "no" to increasing operating taxes.

"It is very disappointing," library director Carol Dolin said. " ... We really were not lying when we said we could not continue to operate" at the same level of service without more money.

With all seven precincts reporting, there are 1,676 "no" votes and 688 "yes" votes, according to unofficial returns. Nearly 69 percent of the votes cast rejected the request for additional funding. Officials said voter turnout was 24.49 percent.

Dolin said the library board will meet Thursday to decide what to do. It's likely hours of service, which had been increased last year, will be cut. "When we added 10 hours we knew we could not sustain that" without a tax increase, Dolin said.

Supporters had hoped that improvements in how the library is run, including having a library board that has stopped making headlines over its bickering, would persuade people to part with more money. The tax increase would have levied about an additional $25 for every $100,000 of property market value. Dolin calculated that would have raised $332,477 annually; last year the district collected $559,551 for operating expenses. Dolin said the district expects fewer tax revenue this year, due to declining property values and the effect of the property tax cap.