FROM THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2002
SPOKANE, WASH./COUR D'ALENE, IDAHO

The question of libraries

Infomercial star Matthew Lesko will ask Stevens County to keep district

By John Craig
Staff Writer

Matthew Lesko, star of late-night infomercials and author of best-selling advice books, is coming to Stevens County with some free advice.

A question, really: Why would anyone who isn't rich want to close a library?

``The library is a gateway to our information society and, if we start getting rid of libraries, then the average person loses the gateway to the information that is the lifeblood of our society now,'' Lesko said as he prepared to campaign here Tuesday for preservation of the Stevens County Rural Library District.

A measure on next month's general election ballot would dissolve the 4-year-old library district. Critics say the district's tax levy of slightly less than 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value - the same maximum as for fire protection - is unfair and too high.

Lesko sees it differently.

``I think the library should be the most important building in a community in our information age,'' the 59-year-old entrepreneur said.

When people want to know more about things they read in the newspaper, they can turn to their library, Lesko said. Whether they want information on health care or stockbrokers, they'll find it at the library.

Lesko will bring that message - and his trademark blue suit covered with yellow question marks - when he addresses Stevens County residents Tuesday at Loon Lake, Colville and Kettle Falls.

``I never leave home without it,'' Lesko said of the colorful outfit he uses to hawk his books on how to take advantage of government programs.

He's made a career with garish clothing, a frenetic speaking style and information that can be obtained free from libraries.

``I take government information for free and sell it for as much as I can get,'' Lesko said. ``That's really what I do for a living.''

And he's not afraid libraries will undercut sales of his books.

``Actually, people steal them from libraries,'' he joked. ``I speak at libraries all the time. I'd rather do that than give speeches where people pay me $5,000. People have more fun, and I have more fun.''

Lesko volunteered to campaign for the Stevens County Rural Library District at his own expense after reading a New York Times story about efforts to dissolve the district.

Although he flunked freshman English composition at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Lesko went on to earn a master's degree in computer science from American University in Washington, D.C., and to launch a consulting firm in the 1970s that dug up information for large corporations.

Then he came up with the idea of publishing a book listing federal programs that offer free or low-cost services and financing. The result was ``Getting Yours,'' the first of two New York Times best sellers and of dozens of similar titles.

Now the boy from Wilkes Barre, Pa., lives in a Washington, D.C., suburb, drives a Lexus with yellow polka dots and runs a company called Information USA.

Lesko makes no apologies for exploiting federal largesse or encouraging others to do so.

``Very few of these programs are actually welfare,'' he said.

Anyway, Lesko said, he and his readers are in good company. He said President Bush parlayed a $600,000 investment in the Texas Rangers baseball team into $12 million with help from state and local governments that put up $200 million to build a stadium for the team.

``That's where he got his money to run for government,'' Lesko said.

He calculates that Vice President Dick Cheney raked in $3 billion worth of government contracts and subsidized loans when he was chief executive of Halliburton Co.

Anyone who wants more information on that can find it at a library, Lesko said.

The public is invited to hear his message at the Library of the Lakes in Loon Lake at 10 a.m. Tuesday, at noon when he addresses the Colville Chamber of Commerce at Cookie's Cafe, and in a ``meet the author'' gathering at the Woodland Theatre in Kettle Falls from 7 to 9 p.m.

Lesko's Loon Lake session may be moved to the nearby Loon Lake Historical Society building, the old Loon Lake School, if the crowd is too large for the library.

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