Central Arkansas Library System Executive Director Nate Coulter at a board meeting Thursday encouraged officials with friends or relatives in Jonesboro to support the library system there ahead of a Nov. 8 referendum that would slash its funding.
Holding up a copy of a Jonesboro newspaper that featured a story about the upcoming vote, Coulter referred to the "fracas of dispute" over LGBTQ materials there dating back to Pride Month last year, as well as the recent departure of the library system's director.
He told board members that "if you know people in Jonesboro, if you have family or friends in Jonesboro, remind them that their library is on the ballot and they need to support it because it does a lot of great things, not just provide books for everybody in the community."
If approved, twin ballot measures would reduce property-tax levies in Jonesboro and Craighead County that support the local library system. Each would drop from 2.0 to 1.0 mills.
Residents of Jonesboro as well as individuals who live outside the city but within Craighead County will vote on their respective ballot questions.
A mill equals one-tenth of a cent, meaning each mill is collected on every $1,000 of the tax-assessed value of a piece of property.
The Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library last year sparked the ire of individuals with a June 2021 display in the children's section meant to coincide with LGBTQ Pride Month. Residents also objected to the content of certain books and where they were displayed.
In October 2021, then-Director David Eckert announced that the library system would move some books on sex education intended for children to a parent/teacher section of the children's library, the Jonesboro Sun reported at the time.
The following month, Eckert submitted his resignation, according to the Sun.
Vanessa Adams, the current director of the library system, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette earlier this month that reducing the millage would mean the library system would have to cut "most" of its services.
The majority of its annual revenue comes from property taxes, Adams said via email.
The group behind the effort to reduce the library system's funding is Craighead Citizens Taxed Enough, which filed paperwork with the Arkansas Ethics Commission in late September to become a ballot question committee.
When reached by phone Thursday and asked how much LGBTQ library materials factored into their efforts, chairwoman Iris Stevens said, "You know what? The more people push this at us, the more it might become, because this started out as a millage initiative, and it was based on the facts that we had discovered when we were attending meetings up at the library."
Stevens, a northeast Arkansas Tea Party activist and retired English teacher, said they examined funding for the Jonesboro library system and then compared it to others around the state.
"But you know what? We're capable of chewing gum and walking at the same time. There are a lot of us who disapprove of the books," Stevens said. "Not just the LGBTQ, but the graphic sexuality in some of these books, and it takes all flavors, you know -- it's not just homosexual; it's heterosexual, it's -- I don't even know what you would call it."
She argued that the millage was a separate issue and the opposition has tied the two together.
"A lot of our people will vote for the millage issue because of the other side -- because they've been, well, just frankly very ugly about all of this," Stevens said.
An Oct. 3 blog post on the website of the conservative Family Council wrote favorably of the effort to reduce the property-tax levies that fund the Jonesboro library system.
"Even if the library were not spending public tax dollars on obscene children's books, reducing the millage in Craighead County arguably would help balance the library's budget and provide relief for taxpayers," wrote Jerry Cox, the executive director of the Family Council Action Committee. "It's ridiculous to think that a library isn't to blame if a child finds pornographic or obscene material in the library's children's section."
Coulter's remarks on Thursday came in the context of an update for board members about the activities of Teens 4 InQlusion, a library program meant to support LGBTQ young people.
That program recently drew questions from state Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway.
Rapert tweeted on Aug. 24 that he had received a citizen complaint about the library system "hosting events targeting minors with programming that includes sexual content," the Arkansas Times reported shortly thereafter.
An FAQ document regarding Teens 4 InQlusion that was distributed to Central Arkansas Library System board members for a meeting last month said, "None of the programs offered by CALS are inherently sexual in nature, and it would be against our policy to offer sexually explicit programs."
The library system's factsheet attributed the assumption to "centuries of anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda."
Attempts to ban books have surged recently, according to the American Library Association, and the most-targeted books share themes related to LGBTQ identity or race, the Associated Press reported earlier this year.