Against city building deal

Dear Editor,

It looks like uncontrolled spending and ignoring your constituency is not limited to either Washington D. C. or Madison.

Our Mayor is trying to pull an end run around the recent referendum on purchasing the old NMC building for the library. That was defeated in most of the voting districts so the Joint Library Board could not buy the building for a new library. Now the City, under the direction of Dean Knudsen is trying to purchase the building for the combined use of the Police Department and the Library. Then, in five years, the City will sell the building to the Library and build its own new Public Safety Building.

What makes him think that this will make the deal any sweeter than if the Library Board bought it in the first place. And why should the City buy and then sell property. They're not supposed to be real estate speculators. Talk about underhanded, sneaky back-room deals. This should make everyone who voted against the purchase originally extremely angry and let the City Council know exactly how angry and disappointed they really feel. Increased taxes are increased taxes even at the local level. We will all have to pay dearly and double for this sleight-of-hand card trick.

Editors note: The Nov. 4, 2008 referendum had mixed results. The city (4,180-2,441) and village (1,172-928) voted to borrow money to buy the NMC Building as a library. The bid failed in the towns of Hudson (2,224-2,304) and St. Joe (980-1,252). All four municipalities rejected tax increases for operating an expanded library. Under the terms of the referendum – initiated by the Library Foundation – it could only move forward if both questions passed in all four municipalities.

Tags: nmc building, opinion, letters, taxes