Manitou Springs is aiming to improve its library and all the parks around the town west of Colorado Springs with a pair of issues on next month’s ballot.

Mayor Mark Snyder said residents have pointed to institutions like the city library and public pool whenever the subject of budget cuts comes up.

“We’ve had to make cuts out here like everywhere else,” Snyder said. “People begin to look at just what cuts can be made.”

So, the city is proposing with Issue 2B that property taxes be raised by just under $240,000 in 2013 so the Pikes Peak Library District can take over management of the library.

The mayor said Friends of the Library has been trying to raise money for an expansion for 10 years, but they “haven’t raised anywhere near the funds.” Snyder said it costs $180,000 each year to run the current library even without expansion.

“We just don’t have the general fund budget to accommodate that. It’s a very positive thing,” he said of the proposed tax increase. “It would bring all the resources of the PPLD to Manitou Springs.”

The second ballot measure, Issue 2C, doesn’t call for a bump in taxes. It would allow Manitou Springs to redistribute more than $400,000 of revenue collected for El Paso Boulevard

Beckers Lane Park.

If voters pass 2C, the city would be allowed to use that money for improvements on all of Manitou Springs’ public parks, Snyder said.

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