At the heart of the pro-annexation side is the charge that joining KCLS would be six to 9 percent cheaper than the city-owned alternative. They arrive at this conclusion with an unfair side-by-side comparison. The KCLS levy is currently at $0.42 per $1,000 assessed value. Renton’s libraries only cost $0.26 per $1,000. However, implementing the library master plan study done in 2006 would raise this cost to $0.48 per $1,000. The pro-annexation side compares KCLS at $0.42 to an improved Renton library at $0.48.

Here is what is being left out of the equation. 1. The City of Renton does not plan to refund the library portion of its budget if we annex. An apples-to-apples comparison would require adding the current $0.26 per thousand to the KCLS cost. This would put the annexation cost at $0.68 per thousand. 2. KCLS is currently asking for a levy

to go from $0.42 to $0.50 per $1,000. If this passes, the true cost to annex would be $0.76 per $1,000.

The real side-by-side comparison is KCLS costing as much as $0.76 per $1,000 vs. a much-improved Renton library system at $0.48 per $1,000. Or, we could just keep things the same as they are at $0.26 per $1,000. Why, in this economy, would we vote such a huge tax increase on ourselves to change something that is already working pretty well? To add to all the confusion, we are now learning that the Renton libraries may actually cost only $0.21 per $1,000 assessed value.

Let’s keep control of our libraries and increase funding as conditions improve. In the long run, we will gain more and spend way less.

Bob Bicknell

Renton