Allowing a rare moment of agreement, Bob Plain’s got a great catch on RI Future:

Governor Chafee’s proposed budget would give $341,488 [in library aid] to Barrington and $17,569 to Central Falls. That’s because state library aid is appropriated based on a library’s budget rather than its need.

Put differently, because a community is able and willing to use more local money for its library, the state gives it more assistance.  I join Bob in thinking that’s not really the way tax dollars should be apportioned.

Of course, if we take the next step and ask what ought to be done about it, we’d probably be back to disagreement.  I suspect the position of Bob and the Progressives would be that the state ought to bring poorer communities’ total library budgets up to the amount that wealthier communities are able to support.  If Barrington’s library operates with $1.5 million and Central Falls’ library operates with $165,000, one can almost hear them thinking that the state should give Central Falls another $1.3 million.

I’d go the other way.  Clearly, a town that can come up with over $1 million for its library (and it really is a nice library) doesn’t need help from state-level taxpayers.  The total amount of state library aid, in other words, ought to be cut.