Almost three-fourths of Boone County Library District voters yesterday rejected a property tax increase that would have funded new branch libraries in Ashland and just north of the Boone County Fairgrounds.

The proposal for a 21-cent property tax increase lost in all precincts except for Precinct 4H in Columbia, according to final, unofficial results from the Boone County clerk.

County library board member Jessica Robinson said the most pressing need is at the Ashland branch.

"The most immediate next step is that the board needs to talk about the Southern Boone County branch," Robinson said, adding that the lease on a 3,300-square-foot building expires Aug. 31. "Their need far exceeds the capacity."

Teresa Maledy, who was co-chairwoman of library fundraising committee Branching Out, said today the results were disappointing.

"We felt like we had a great proposal," she said. "We had two years of public comment and felt we were strategically placing libraries where the greatest number of people would be served."

The election result contrasted with a library telephone survey in November, when a research group at the University of Missouri-Columbia found support among registered Boone County voters for library expansion and for a tax increase.

The northern branch location recently became contentious as the Hallsville Chamber of Commerce mounted a campaign, saying the site near the county fairground would not serve patrons in Hallsville, Harrisburg or Sturgeon.

The chamber placed ads in county newspapers and spent about $600 for radio ads on KFRU that ran Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday.

John Schloot, executive director of the chamber, said he was against the tax but willing to work with the library for future expansion.

"If this ballot does fail, I’m pledging that I will help them come up with a better solution and expend every effort to get a new ballot measure passed," Schloot said yesterday before the votes were counted.

Melissa Carr, director of the Daniel Boone Regional Library system that includes the Boone County district, said today that the library would continue to work with communities throughout the county to provide the library services they need.

Choosing the site for a new branch library is complex, said Don Stamper, co-chairman of the library’s campaign committee. Although southern Boone County has a focal point in Ashland, there are several population centers in the north.

"If you don’t put it in one place, you’ll have to put it in another," Stamper said. "It’s easy to criticize" proposed branch locations, "but it’s much more difficult to reach that decision."

Stamper said opposition to the tax ran deeper than location complaints.

"The result is so profound, it didn’t have to do with location," he said. "It was the attitude towards what was proposed."

In April 1999, the Daniel Boone Regional Library asked voters to increase the tax levy. Although the proposal passed inside the Columbia library district, 52 percent of voters in the county district rejected the increase.

Maledy said the tax proposal that failed yesterday - which would have been a 70 percent increase for 10 years, when it would drop by 5 cents per $100 assessed valuation - probably turned off voters.

Robinson and Stamper also attributed the results to a national trend against tax increases.

"We missed the mark, and we’ll have to go back and re-examine," Stamper said.

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