BookPage cancelled

By John Labriola - In a victory for decency and common sense, Citrus County will be canceling the library system's annual $3,300 subscription to BookPage when it runs out in February.

The decision ending the county's 20-year subscription to the left-wing book review magazine was announced at last week's commission meeting by Commissioner Jeff Kinnard. His vote on the five-member commission is decisive because Commissioners Diana Finegan and Janet Barek had already come to the same conclusion at the county's initial budget hearing on Sept. 11, when a number of residents asked for the magazine to be eliminated because of its woke content. The library system was purchasing 500 copies a month of the magazine and distributing them to all five branch libraries, but critics complained it consistently recommends titles with LGBT, CRT, pro-abortion, anti-Trump, and witchcraft themes while demeaning conservative viewpoints.

Kinnard said he'd been thinking about the issue since the earlier meeting and decided to do some research. He discovered several book review sites like Goodreads, BookBrowse and bookreporter, which like BookPage are free online and wouldn't cost taxpayers anything. He also found out that only 38 percent of public libraries in the United States subscribe to BookPage.

"Given the size of our community and our library system, I don't think it's appropriate; I don't think it's necessary," Kinnard said. "I want to see us drop the subscription to BookPage and direct people to online resources available to them." (Email him a thank-you note HERE.)

Kinnard said the library system can reinvest the savings from canceling BookPage into other materials it has a need for. 

The decision means the Library Advisory Board (LAB) won't have to discuss the issue at its October meeting. A large number of residents had urged the LAB to recommend ending the BookPage subscription at its August meeting, but the board postponed a decision until its next meeting two months later so it could perform a review, which will no longer be needed.

Commissioners last week also finalized the county's 2025-26 budget. The budget restores prior-year funding levels for road resurfacing by cutting other spending, as requested by commissioners. Finegan wanted the commission to adopt the lower rollback rate for the health and library budgets, but was outvoted 4-1. Barek, who had voted against the library budget at the first budget hearing, said she changed her mind after hearing Kinnard support canceling BookPage.

The total property tax rate is 8.9249  mills, the same as the prior year, but because property values went up, it means most residents will pay higher taxes. The owner of a home currently valued at $300,000 who takes the standard $50,000 homestead exemption will pay $2,231.23 in county property taxes under the new budget, which takes effect Oct. 1.

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