As the Central Arkansas Library System moves toward granting free access only to those whose taxes support operations, it is working through confusion when boundaries between Pulaski County communities leave some in a no-man's land.
Starting in March, new system card applicants will have to pay an annual $54 fee if they do not pay property taxes in Pulaski and Perry counties. Current cardholders who live outside the tax base will have free access until Sept. 1.
The change chiefly impacts North Little Rock residents who are patrons at the library system. North Little Rock is located in Pulaski County, but property taxes paid there support the William F. Laman Library System, rather than Central Arkansas Library System .
But there are other communities in Pulaski County -- including Maumelle, Sherwood and Jacksonville -- where some residents have a North Little Rock mailing addresses but pay property taxes that support Central Arkansas Library System.
Anyone in those areas who isn't sure whether their property taxes support the library system can find out by searching their address on the Pulaski County treasurer's website at pulaskicountytreasurer.net. Residents should select "Pay Taxes/Inquiry," enter their address, find the correct parcel and click "View History." The record will state whether property taxes were paid to Central Arkansas or the Laman library system.
The library also has dealt with cases where someone lives outside its service area but owns property within it. For that situation, the library system has added a new field to its patron records that includes that information.
"We have made changes to records in all cases where patrons have asked us to validate the address and given the full CALS privileges because their taxes support our operations," Nathan James, the system's deputy executive director of technology and collection innovation, said in an email.
Central Arkansas Library System Executive Director Nate Coulter said the system believes the county tax collector's records to be definitive when there are discrepancies between a postal address and the physical location inside a taxing jurisdiction.
Coulter said a few patrons came to branches Tuesday with a county tax receipt that showed their taxes went to Central Arkansas Library System even though they had a mailing address in North Little Rock. He said the discrepancy seems to be more common in Maumelle because of a "serpentine boundary" between the two cities.
Coulter said patrons should call or visit their branch, or call the Main Library, if they need help overriding their mailing address when applying for a card.
James said charging nonresident fees is more common than not in public libraries across the United States. Other communities that do so include Austin, Texas; Topeka, Kan.; Nashua, N.H.; Springfield, Mo.; Orange County, Fla.; and Brigham City, Utah.
"CALS was actually an exception to that rule," he said. "While that exception was 'nice' it was fundamentally unfair to our taxpayers. The issue of equity is one of everyone paying their fair share to support the public library."
Metro on 02/17/2020