LAFAYETTE, La. — Millions of dollars in annual funding for the Lafayette Parish Public Library System are now at risk after voters rejected a key property tax renewal in the May 16 election, leaving the future of library services in question.
“My immediate reaction was disappointment that the tax was not passed,” said library system director Danny Gillane.
The failed renewal — worth approximately $8.8 million every year — funds about 65 percent of the system’s operations, supporting nine library locations, a bookmobile, and services for more than 250,000 Lafayette residents. The library’s other tax, last renewed in 2021, remains in effect.
“I can't know — do I attribute that to the push for a ‘vote no’ on the ballot and we just got swept up in that?” Gillane said. “The numbers for the library, the people who are attending library programs, the people who are coming to the library, our circulation numbers, they're all good.”
Fifty-six percent of voters said no to the tax renewal. The rejected funds pay for everything from staffing and programming to building repairs, new materials, and ongoing renovations — including work at the North and South Regional branches and the Northeast Regional Library currently in the planning process.
“It funds the operation, the building, the repairs, it funds everything, it funds the materials we buy, the services we offer, the programming we do,” Gillane said.
While the library system is funded for the next year and a half, Gillane said it’s too early to predict the long-term outcome if the tax is not ultimately renewed.
“For more affluent people, we represent access to books. For less affluent people, we represent access to books, we represent access to the Internet — but for everybody, we also provide access to programming,” Gillane said.
The tax renewal could return to the ballot as soon as December.
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