letters

Bibliophiles, rejoice -- spending Sundays at the library is about to become a lot more possible in Hennepin County. Bravo to the Hennepin County Board for deciding to spend Twins stadium tax money earmarked for libraries to open 13 county libraries -- including Minneapolis Central -- from noon to 5 p.m., beginning June 1.

For years, library patrons have been served by only five Hennepin County libraries on Sunday, none of them in Minneapolis. The change is wrought by a provision in the 2006 stadium law engineered by Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, dedicating revenues not needed for debt service to longer library hours.

The next item on library lovers' agenda has to be restoring Monday hours to at least some Minneapolis libraries. May that also be next on the County Board's library improvement agenda.

A lot of legislators return to the Capitol as lobbyists -- but this page has a soft spot for the seniors among them, who come out of retirement as volunteers to keep working on legislative ideas they promoted during their elected careers.

So here's a tip of our hat to 76-year-old former Sen. Bob Lessard, who even on the day before his recent abdominal surgery was twisting arms at the Capitol. He was urging a budget conference committee to specify this year who would decide how to spend the wildlife conservation portion of the new revenue that will come into state coffers, if November voters approve a constitutional amendment raising the sales tax for conservation and the arts.

This page is no fan of dedicated funding, for this or other purposes. We think the elected Legislature and governor should decide how state money is spent. But we won't argue with Lessard's contention that the state's hunting and fishing organizations won't warm to raising taxes for their favorite cause unless they're assured some control over the money. He may be out of office, but he knows his constituents well.