Library Funding:
The Salida Regional Library is really the Southern Chaffee County Regional Library District, a name that is hard to say on the phone. But you can see why many people mistakenly believe it is a city library.
The library is funded primarily through property taxes collected within the district. The district boundaries are the same as the Salida School District's, south of a line bisecting the county below Mesa Antero.
School district funding is a little different such that the schools' reach may extend into neighboring counties. The Salida Regional Library has traditionally offered services to residents in neighboring counties or districts without charge, although that circumstance is reviewed periodically by the board. Most of those neighboring areas support their own libraries, which cooperate in the Colorado Library Card program, and so services are extended to them as a matter of course. Only one area remains that does not meet that criteria for library support -- northern Fremont County, which includes such communities as Howard, Coaldale, and Cotopaxi -- but we continue at this time to provide library services to those residents.
For the Year 2000, library revenues of $393,472 broke down as follows:
Ad valorem property tax $261,144 66%
Specific ownership taxes $66,018 16.7%
Grants and donations $40,042 10%
Interest, etc. $15,499 3.9%
Fines and fees $10,770 2.7%
