COUNTY LIBRARY BOARDS - POWER AND DUTIES. Letter, July 15, 1964, to Leroy G. Fox, State Librarian, Topeka, Kansas.
Dear Sir:
This is in response to the letter which you forwarded from Stanton County Library in Johnson, Kansas.
Our research indicates that the Stanton County Library was probably established under G.S. 1935, 19-1701 to 1712. We note that G.S. 1935, 19-1704, in describing the powers of county library boards, states, in part, that the county library board ". . . shall certify to the board of county commissioners the amount the county library levy deemed necessary for the year . . . and the board of county commissioners shall levy the county library levy within the maximum provided by this act." It is our feeling that the plain interpretation of this law would be that the county commissioners must levy the sum determined by the library board, subject only to the maximum limits on county library levies established by law.
Although the above quoted law was repealed in 1951, the new county library law includes essentially the same language. G.S. 1961., 12-1220 states, in part, that the governing body of a municipality " . . . shall annually levy a tax for the maintenance of such library in such sum as the library board shall determine . . . ."
It is the opinion of this office that the Stanton County Library board has statutory power to establish the amount necessary for operation of the county library, and that the county commissioners of said county are required by law to levy this amount.
- Quoted from Kansas Public Library Laws, Attorney General’s Opinions and Rules and Regulations, State Library of Kansas, March 1979.
Labels: Stanton