For the group of business managers on Springfield’s Fiscal Stability Task Force, its recommended cuts to the Springfield Public Library are a no-brainer. The library is a cost center that generates no revenue and provides no services of economic value to their business. 

They don’t need Springfield to be an attractive place to live to recruit a skilled workforce. And they don’t need it to provide a customer base. They, their employees and their customers can live anywhere. 

That is illustrated by the fact that almost half the committee of businesspeople that recommended cuts to the library don’t live here. Their only stake in Springfield is as a place to do business. 

The larger issue is that the priority for the city is not creating a livable community but attracting businesses. But business property taxes rarely cover the costs for the city services they demand. The library cuts are evidence of that reality. 

As residents, we need city government to make Springfield a better place to live. If business properties actually generated more revenue than costs we would be talking about adding a branch library in Thurston. Not cutting the meager library services we already have. But the city is caught in a classic example of the old joke, “I am losing money on every sale, but I make up for it in volume.”

Apparently our library services are going to be the immediate victim of that reality.

Ross Williams
Springfield