" Part of why voters turn this initiaive down was the way it was advertised...most thought it was a 6 cent increase in the sales tax not a 1 cent increase. Most voters didn't want to pay an extra 6 cents, you may need to center you advertising on that it is a "one cent" increase not a "sixth cent" increase.

The number of signs I have seen around town denouncing the "6 cent" increase is pretty evident of this misunderstanding. "

" If you want the tax to pass for the new library vote out the Optional one cent sales tax. I'm tierd of seeing that money being used as as part of the city's budget and not for special projects like it was voted for to begin with.. It was never ment to be used for personnel and wages.. So the next time it comes for vote.. VOTE NO FOR THE 1 CENT SALES TAX............ "

" Actually, 47 million for a library is beyond comprehension!
Fort Casper Academy was built for 17 million! "

" I didn't like the price of the land. Follow the money! "

" I believe the land price was considered exhorbitant and that played a large part in the defeat. I guess the developers get to hold on to it. "

" Optional taxes that are supposed to be used for the good of the county are usually used for other reasons. It is no surprise that they are now being utilized in the budget as Revenue instead of dog eared for their intended purpose. Something to think about... when they ask you to vote whether to put toll booths on the highways in WY so this money could be used for road maintenance, you might want to research how well that worked in the state of New Jersey. "

" So true tax man. We need to get rid of the 1 cent sales tax. The city of casper abuses this program. I know that for a fact..... I work for them... The abuse needs to end.... "

" I agree with the tax man The optional 1 cent tax we already should be used for this. I'd like to see an accounting of exaclty where it is going and would like to know when it will be up for vote again. "

" Don't fret the county will build the new library. They will put it on the ballot again, and it will fail, and magically the county will build it. Just like the court house no one wanted. "

" Another reason this was defeated was that when it first was announced earlier this year the amount was in the low $30 million, but only a few months latter to came closer to $50 million (include the money from the tax, the proceeds from the sale of the old building, and donation from the Library foundation). People thought that the were being misled and did not trust that the tax would go away.

I agree the current optional 1-cent tax should be used for SPECIAL projects and NOT for OPERATIONS of the city nor county.

Robin A---it is up for vote in 2 years. "

" I hear Highland Park Church will soon be up for sale - fix it up a little and you have a library with plenty of parking. "

" Be real. Do we really need a new library? What's wrong with the one we have? We definately don't need a new library, just like we didn't need a new court house. Just a big waste of money if you ask me. "

" This library falls into the "luxury" category. There are some very spendy people in government who see no bounds. I voted against this library to remind them that is MY money they are wanting to spend. "

" A word about public library construction codes and structural requirements: Renovating an already standing structure or building upwards on the current library is not feasible because of the special structural and code requirements for the construction of library buildings. Because of the weight load of thousands of books and fixtures and of other structural code requirements, public libraries must be built to far and away exceed the standards of other public structures like schools and court houses, using much stronger and higher grade engineering and building materials. This is one of the main reasons why library construction projects often seem to be arbitrarily more expensive than other similar structures. So you see, it would not be cost effective to attemp to improve or upgrade the current building. This is not me talking, it is structural and safety code ordinances. I just wanted to throw this piece of information out there. Google it, seriously. Try "public libraries structural requirements" and read through the first 20 or so results. "

" I think they should have lost by MUCH more, but many people only knew the 'vote FOR the library' and nto that it would increase DAILY taxes! Alos this is a 'keep up with the Jones' - meaning Cheyennes beautiful new Library - and thirdly, in these uncertain economic times, they want to spend 47 mil on a posh library not even needed? What an irresponsible thing for them to even suggest! "

" The greed of the land owners killed the program in my mind. Had they come forward and made a strong community gesture with a reduced price for the land it may have run. Everyone I know that voted against the library was upset over the excessive profit to be made by the land owners. Turned out to be very bad for their business as they are now even more well known as price gougers. "

" As someone living on a limited income, the last thing we need is to pay higher sales tax. Food prices have skyrocketed over the past year, rent is still outrageous, the cost of living in Casper is already too high. And, as kaykay says, we already have a library. If we have to build something, why not something we don't have but need (a civic auditorium, perhaps?) "

" There were so many things wrong with this proposal, I am shocked that it got the number of yes votes it did receive. The vote should have been 32,706 no votes to 4 yes votes. Those 4 yes votes being the people who stood to gain a huge, undeserved profit out of this scam on the backs of the taxpayers.

The proponents of this project had no interest whatsoever in providing the community with anything that was actually needed. Their only interest was making a huge profit off of a project that was not only not needed, but was never going to be developed or constructed in any fashion that would have been worth the cost to the taxpayers.

No one was confused about the sales tax increase. Everyone knew it was a 1 cent sales tax increase, and that Natrona County would then be paying a total of 6 cents sales tax. Don't try to explain this defeat away by saying people were ignorant and confused. They were perfectly well aware that this was only a 1 cent increase to the current sales tax rate. They just flat out said no. Just like they did to the sales tax increase for the new courthouse. No confusion that time either.

People are not stupid. They know a scam when they see one. This was a scam all the way, starting with the purchase price for the land. Most everyone here also knows who was going to benefit from this exorbitantly priced land. Don't try this again on us. If you do we will fight it again the same way and defeat it again the same way. That would be by fully informing the voters about such projects.

Right now you better start worrying about keeping the 5th cent optional sales tax that the county is collecting at this time. There are several reasons why the taxpayers may decide not to renew that 1 cent when we vote again in 2 years. Remember, that 5th cent was supposed to be for special projects too, but somehow it got lumped into the general budget, courtesy of some fancy budgeting allocation moves, and is now in fact being used to pay day to day county operations. Operational costs that include salaries and benefits for county employees that we do not need.

Fair warning to the county and city bureaucrats: you better quit while you are ahead. After the end run around the voters you did with the courthouse, and then this library kick back scheme, the voters are in no mood to approve any increase in the local sales tax, and in fact might decide to not renew the 5th cent optional tax in 2010. "

" We need to steadfastly vote down all these attempts to grow the city and county government by raising taxes. They have something new that they want us to voluntarily tax ourselves for every election. Maybe we need to go ahead and vote down the optional 5th cent next time too since it is no longer going for what it is supposed to. They need to figure out how to budget for the needs of the government within the current tax revenues and stop trying to get us to raise our taxes for every special project that they dream up. "

" NO NEW TAXES!!!!

NOT NOW, NOT IN THE FUTURE.

VOTE OUT THE OPTIONAL 5TH CENT NEXT ELECTION. "

" New to Wyoming that is a load. The courst have masive volumed of files, Books containing previous decisions ie law libraries. The judges have their own copies. They could have in fact retrofited the current building and met all those code requirement you refer to.

The proponebts lied about several things and they were caught at it. If you can not tell the truth then nothing you say is believable.

There were other options but no you all wanted a big fancy building no matter who paid for it.

Can not be truthfull, reasonable, or listen I will always vote NO.

I TOTALLY AGREE WITh "NO NEW TAXES AND THINK" "

" Steve R - you are full of it. Get a job somewhere else if you are going to bash where your paycheck comes from. "

" You people need to figure out what the optional 1 cent really does. Go ahead and vote it out - and kiss your nice streets goodbye. And forget about new equipment, cop cars, fire trucks, etc. Might as well get rid of your car because the roads will be too crappy to drive on.

Figure out the difference between the county and the city. City had nothing to do with the court house. "

" Getting the message yet? Or do we need one more election in order to make you understand what the definition of "No" is?

I think the voters made it perfectly clear what they do and do not want in our county. Would you like to go for double or nothing on the 5th cent? "

" OK study up:

Are you going to threaten the people with the loss of our streets, police force, and fire department.

The optional 5th cent sales tax was put in place for special city and county enhancement projects years ago. (I know I was here). Sad thing is the voters never voted it out once the things people wanted were completed and the city and county have just taken it over as part of their budget.It was never put in place to fund streets and nice new police and sherrif vehcles. Although the tax payers new it was happening that was never the intent of the tax. I think you have certainly given the voters something to think about and debate for the next two years. It might be time to get rid of the city counsel and the county commissioners and start from scratch. The sentiment of the taxpayer/voter is a little testy right now so you all my want to backoff and cool it for a while. "

" They can back off and cool it alright, but two years from now most of us will still be here, and most of us will still remember what they tried to put over on us with this library deal. "Study up" is probably an ignorant government bureaucrat who wants to threaten the county residents with reductions to public services. "Study up" is so ignorant that he/she doesn't know that the current 5th cent sales tax we are paying was supposed to be for special city/county projects. "Study up" is also so stupid that he/she doesn't realize that part of the 5th cent sales tax does benefit the city as well as the county.

If there is anymore of this crap coming from these bureaucrats, we will organize a massive effort in 2010 and take away the 5th cent. We will also target the county commissioners and city council members that give us any grief or threats over this issue too. You are our elected servants. You serve at our pleasure. You are not our bosses. You do not have any right whatsoever to threaten the voters/taxpayers with anything at all. Understand?!!?? Or do you need the educational benefit of one more election?!!!??? "

" Do some research, uninformed opinions are useless, and I think new equipment does fall under "special projects".
As several have pointed out the county comissioners backdoored us with the courthouse, vote them out...start over. What do you expect, they see the laywers as money and what the wealthy want they ususally get. The judges are at fault too. I have heard they have 2 courtrooms at the jail that do not get used, because they are "inconvienient" to the judges! Judges are basicly civil servants, how "convinient" is it for firemen to pickup drunks at 3:00am or cops to sort out silly social squables? It is the job, the judges convienience is not an issue..they should use the resources available to them. On to our fine city....
The city council members are really Tom Forslund's puppets for the most part (not all of them, but most), he is more the issue than them. If you really want it, I am sure that a full accounting of the 5th cent is easy to get from the city's end. 5th cent does ALOT of good here in Casper/ Natrona County. It DOES NOT pay for wages of employees! It does buy police cars, firetrucks, buses, streets equipment, builds public buildings, and helps fund great projects like meals on wheels and CATC. It is one of the reasons we do not have to vote on bonds for large scale special projects, all in all a good thing for us here. Besides everyone who buys something here pays part of the bill, reisident or tourist. All that being said....
I think of a new library like the new concert hall, things we do not need to spend money on! So, I too voted down the library, due to the insane cost of the land and the building itself, besides we have a library and it works just fine. We really do not need a 47 million dollar building so the homeless have a nicer restrooms, a stylish place to pass out and the CHo-Mos have a new place to surf kiddie porn. "

" "Casper man", you have missed one very important point. The current optional one cent sales tax that is paid in Natrona County was supposed to be strictly for special projects, like the construction of the events center. It was never intended to be used to buy police cars, firetrucks, buses, street equipment, or fund meals on wheels or CATC. These are not special projects! These things needed to be budgeted for with the tax revenues that the county is receiving from other sources. You know, those other sources of revenue that the county decided to use to build a new courthouse that the voters said NO to TWICE!!! It does not matter how worthwhile some of these "day to day" normally occurring and recurring expenses are, the optional 5th cent sales tax was never intended to pay for these things. The county government does not have the legal right to simply re-define what a special purpose tax can be used for.

The county commissioners just re-allocated and re-defined what a special project is after the taxpayers/voters approved the optional 5th cent sales tax into existence many years ago. They just conveniently decided to ignore the "special purpose original intention" of this tax, and figured the taxpayers can go to he.ll. This is pure deceit and exactly the reason why the voters are not going to approve another increase of sales taxes in this county. The commissioners flat out lied and deceived the public.

NO!!! New equipment DOES NOT fall under the "special projects" definition that was adopted and accepted by all parties at the time the 5th cent sales tax was passed by the voters. These are not uninformed opinions! The definition of a special project was very well understood by everyone when they voted for the optional 5th cent. Then the county bureaucrats "changed the definition" to suit their budgetary desires, and without the approval of the voters to make this change in the intent and limited purpose of this new sales tax.

Now the county, and some city government people want to threaten the citizens of this county with reductions in necessary public services if the 5th cent optional sales tax is not renewed in 2010. These people need to be voted out of office and run out of town on a rail for threatening the voters and taxpayers in this manner! How dare these little five and dime criminals threaten us! The time has come to begin a major program to get rid of these county and city bureaucratic incumbents. These people should be charged with felony mis-appropriation of the taxpayers money. Just wait until 2010! "

" Well said Daniel. I'm afraid the real problem could be salary employees, such as Tom Forsland and some of the managers within the city government. Tom Forsland has been around way to long. Instead of being green and growing he is over ripe and smelling. "

" I will be campaigning against the 5th cent; partially because they are not using it for the purposes for which it is supposed to be used for and partially as a punishment for all the new sales tax increases that they have been pushing for every election. They need to learn to stop trying to cram new taxes down our throat. If the city and county knew how to manage their finances, they would have plenty of revenues for everything they need to do and could budget for expansion projects within their normal budgets instead of continually trying to raise taxes for every project they dream up. I am voting no on all new taxes and encouraging anyone who I have any influence over to do the same. Our low taxes are the only thing we have going for us; if we keep raising taxes, we will have nothing going for us. "