WATCH: How Citizen Power Saved a Library

The city of Troy was facing a budget shortfall, and was considering closing the Troy Public Library for lack of funds. It would only take a miniscule tax increase to save the library, but anti-tax groups organized against it. Then, the community -- with help from the Leo Burnett ad agency -- went to work.
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There's so much going wrong in America, we in journalism sometimes miss what's going right. Here's one example -- a story from Troy, Michigan that in its own way answers the question many of you ask of me: 'What can we do? How do we turn things around?"

Seems the city of Troy was facing a budget shortfall, and was considering closing the Troy Public Library for lack of funds. It would only take a miniscule tax increase to save the library, but anti-tax groups organized against it. Then, the community -- with help from the Leo Burnett ad agency -- went to work.

Here's why libraries mean so much to me, and what occurred in Troy -- a reminder of what can happen when we act together.

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