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Originally Posted by phenomshel
Well, we wouldn't have the budget, except for the by now infamous Rita Crundwell, and that I live in the town that was the victim of the largest municipal embezzler in the country. Yes, I live in Dixon, IL. So, when they recovered a bunch of the money she embezzled, the library got a chunk of it, which paid to repair and replace a bunch of stuff that had been falling down around our ears for decades.
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I missed hearing about that one. I am rather amazed that people like Crundwell actually think they can get away with it forever.
A chap I know from Chicago said IL residents assume their politicians to be corrupt, but
do at least expect them to be amusing. He told me about one who was a state Assemblyman. The guy was excoriated in a local paper, and accused of high crimes, misdemeanors, and mopery and dopery on the spaceways.
He responded to the attack, but completely ignored the charges of bribery, embezzlement, racketeering and the like. The one part he
did respond indignantly to was the accusation he didn't actually live in the district he represented. No surprise. If that could be proven, he'd be out of office, as living in the area you represent is a hard and fast rule. The legislature would have no choice about expelling him. The other stuff was all negotiable...
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At the same time, they also increased our share of the tax levy, boosting our budget by several thousand dollars for last year, this fiscal year, and probably next, too. Our tax levy is capped, but they can juggle where the money goes. Problem is, if one area gets boosted, another suffers. The genres I curate are cozy mysteries (I'm sure that's a huge shock to all *laugh*) and urban fantasy. We also have a new director (last summer) who is fantastic. The old one wasn't a slouch either, mind you, but she was kind of in "retirement mode". This one is a bit younger and he's tackling issues we've had for years, and making progress. He's also English, which is always entertaining.
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Excellent. With the tax levy capped it's a juggling act, but it sounds like your voters don't have an issue with the library getting a bigger slice of the pie.
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Dennis