The Alpena County Board of Commissioners made the right decision when it sent the Alpena County Library board back to the drawing board on a proposed property tax increase.

The library board asked the county board to place on the ballot a single question that would ask voters to raise the property tax that funds the library from about 0.75 mills to 0.9 mills. For the owner of a $100,000 house, that would equal about $7.50 a year in additional tax.

According to a recent story by News staff writer Steve Schulwitz, the county board this week rejected that approach, instead telling library officials the library ought to ask voters two questions: One, do you want to renew the library’s current 0.75-mill tax? Two, do you want to increase that tax to 0.9 mills?

That is the right approach.

Alpena County residents might want to support the library at the current levels but might be unwilling to give the library more right now, in this era of high inflation.

Splitting the question allows voters to make that decision for themselves.

It’s the right approach for the library, too.

A tax increase might fail, but a tax renewal might pass. Combining the questions into one proposal might mean voters shoot down the library’s tax, leaving the library without its primary source of revenue.

But splitting the questions might save the library’s current funding level, even if it doesn’t get the increase library officials say they need because of rising costs for running the library.

That’s the smart way to handle it.

Better to have something than nothing.

(THE ALPENA NEWS)