Fayetteville voters last week willingly bought a pig in a poke, agreeing to tax themselves more to expand the city's award-winning public library even though they don't yet know precise plans or cost for the expansion.
Now that's a vote of confidence.
It was, of course, a special election in the dog days of August. The 6,100-plus voters who turned out were those most determined to have a voice on the issue. Many, many more potential voters didn't go to the polls.
As is always the case, whether it is a special local election like this one or a national general election like the one coming up in November with the U.S. presidency on the line, those who do vote make the decisions for those who don't.
The 6,100-plus who did vote last week decided that all Fayetteville property owners will pay for this library's operation and for much of the expansion.
Some may do so grudgingly, but it is a great investment in the community's present and its future.
There were two questions on the ballot. One increased the library millage by 1.5 mills for ongoing maintenance and operation. The other provided an additional 1.2 mills of property tax to expand the library.
Both passed easily but the percentages differed slightly. More (59 percent) favored the operational millage hike than the expansion funding (56 percent).
These are the unofficial returns but the certified results will soon follow. And, beginning next year, property owners will see the resulting increase on their respective property tax bills. It will amount to $54 more tax for every $100,000 worth of property an owner has assessed.
What was approved on Tuesday will bring the total library millage rate to 3.7 mills. Once the construction bonds for the expansion are paid off, the rate will drop to 2.5 mills annually.
That much is certain. When the Washington County Quorum Court officially levies taxes later this year, the new millage will be included and applied to tax bills for 2016.
The election's timing was designed to make that happen and to get new operational money and expansion money flowing to the library as soon as possible.
The operational need has existed for a while now.
The library's governing board raised fees, froze salaries and trimmed its budgets significantly in the past few years. More than 160 programs have been cut, even as use of the library has increased.
Remember, the library opened in its new facility in 2004 and was designed to serve 64,000 people.
Projections for Fayetteville's growth show the library serving almost trice as many by 2030, which is why they've made this plan to expand southward, almost doubling the footprint.
Library planners even laid out the intended design back before the election, giving voters an idea of how the new space would be used and how the structure would look.
To follow that pig-in-a-poke analogy, voters really had a pretty good idea what the pig might look like but just couldn't be sure what they'll be getting.
The problem is that the land to the south of the library, where the old City Hospital was built many moons ago, is tied up in court.
It is owned by Washington Regional Medical Center, which has agreed to sell it to the Fayetteville Public Library.
That sale would have happened already, had descendants of the people who gave the land for the city hospital not challenged the sale.
In 1906, Stephen and Amanda Stone donated the land to Fayetteville, stipulating its use for a city hospital.
For decades, City Hospital occupied the land. Ownership transferred to Washington Regional in 2011. When the hospital tried to clear title to the land, the Stone heirs objected to the sale.
The lawsuit has been heard by both a local circuit court and one appeals court, both of which would have allowed the sale. The Arkansas Supreme Court agreed in late July, with the election pending, to grant the Stone family's petition for review.
A decision is at least months away.
How the Supreme Court rules will determine whether the library gets the adjacent land.
If it does not, the library will still expand, but upward rather than to the south. The projected cost may or may not be about the same.
In the meantime, library backers still have to raise a lot of money, $22 million or more.
The tax increase, expected to generate $26.5 million toward the project, will not pay fully for either of the expansion options.
The difference -- whatever it turns out to be -- must come from donors.
Commentary on 08/14/2016