If nothing else, you have to admire the gall of the Kitsap Regional Library.

Not only does the agency decide the timing is right during the worst economic recession since the Carter administration to ask for a tax increase to fund non-essential services, but it does so in South Kitsap with a straight face, knowing how underserved this market is with respect to the rest of the county.

While Port Orchard is currently mulling the advantages of annexing into the library district, unincorporated South Kitsap can already answer the question, and it isn’t worth it.

Sure, being a full-fledged member of KRL gives you the right to vote in its elections, but beyond that, why bother?

Regardless of whether Port Orchard is in or out, the library system will still be run by Bainbridge Island elites who don’t set foot south of Silverdale except to dole out a few crumbs at election time and tell us how happy we should be to get them.

If Port Orchard wants a library so badly, why can’t it use the money it’s funneling to KRL and fund its own?

At least that way we’d know for certain we weren’t just paying our hard-earned money for the benefit of our neighbors to the north.

J.M. Mezzanotte is a Port Orchard resident.