Currently people who live within the city limits are able to obtain an Austin public library card for free, but that benefit does not extend to everyone with an Austin address. Those who live in a limited-purpose or extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) have to pay a non-resident fee to get a library card. "This nonresident fee creates an economic barrier to all individuals who may work in Austin and have been forced to relocate to surrounding areas due to gentrification and increased costs of housing that commute into Austin for work,” the commission’s letter to council read. During the last city council meeting of the year, council members approved the resolution to waive the nonresident fee.
You have to pay for a library card? What kind of fascist knowledge hating state is that?
I don’t have to. My local library card is free. I choose to pay for the Austin one, because their catalog is better. Most people who live within a certain range of a library get a free card. If you want one from a library that you don’t live within range of, you usually have to pay for it.
That’s been the case in every city I’ve lived in, blue states and red ones.