City voters will decide the issue on Nov. 7. David Strom, legislative director of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, said the library referendum is an example of the city of Minneapolis going on a spending spree with taxpayer dollars. They pluck your heartstrings, he said. In this case it s kids learning how to read.
Nobody s against a library, but people are against wasting money.
The central library, which was built in 1961, is not a facility that one would normally think is ready to be torn down, he said. Still, library and city officials said a new facility is needed in downtown Minneapolis. Officials want to build the new central library as part of a two-block mixed use development at 300 Nicollet Mall, the site of the existing library. Nonlibrary components of the development would be paid for with tax increment financing, city parking fees and private funds. State money would fund the planetarium, according to library officials.