if you can't get Louisvillians to pay for it...

Why not ask children in Colorado to pick up the tab? Those in Louisville didn't think it was important to spend their own money. So, we can ask taxpayers-- or more likely, future taxpayers in dealing with the debt-- in the rest of the country to pick up 99.7% of the tab.

That's the strategy of the Louisville Free Public Library-- in trying to acquire some of the "stimulus" money about to be sent our way by President Obama and his Democratic Congress.

Here's the front-page article in the C-J by Sheldon Shafer...

Competition for the money will be fierce, but Louisville Free Public Library officials are trying to get federal stimulus money for $8.6 million in capital projects -- including major makeovers of the aging Western, Portland and Shawnee branches, as well as the Main Library in downtown Louisville.

Those projects would jump-start the library system's scaled-down expansion plan, which was left in limbo after a proposed library tax was soundly defeated in a countywide referendum in fall 2007.

After that vote, Mayor Jerry Abramson and the Metro Council asked library director Craig Buthod to develop a less ambitious expansion program. In December Buthod presented a revised plan that called for spending about $120 million over the next 12 years....

City officials said Wednesday they expect to get at least $200 million in stimulus money, and maybe much more.

Already, they have proposed more than 200 projects costing more than $600 million -- a lengthy list that includes improvements to public buildings, plus housing, sewer, water, parks, road, bridges, transit, school and the library....