King County Votes To Raise Tax for PL

A special election February 5 in King County, WA, showed that voters are willing to raise the library system's property tax rate and resist an antitax wave that has hobbled libraries in the state. With 94 percent of the votes in, King County Library System Director Bill Ptacek said that Proposition I could pass with as much as 65 percent of the vote, though it only needed a simple majority.

The proposition authorizes the library district to lift the limitations imposed by Initiative 747 (I-747), which was voted into law in 2001. I-747 limits regular property tax levy increases to a maximum of one percent and requires an election to authorize any increase above that limit. The property tax levy rate will now be restored to 50¢ per $1000 assessed value.

The library had argued that the one percent growth limit would not allow the district to keep up with the cost of inflation, the rate of growth, or the demand for more services. Ptacek said that the library had hurried to have the measure on an early ballot in case it needed to plan for cuts. The library is the first of any district in the state to go back to the voters since I-747 was passed.

The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library are calling for the creation of a separate, dedicated tax levy. Currently funded through the city's general budget, library spending is half that of neighboring Minneapolis. The library can't implement its comprehensive plan without additional funds, said Library Director Carole Williams.

The Friends' proposal also would make the city council the library board (the library currently does not have a board). "We thought the oversight of the funding should continue with the same body who oversees it fiscally," said Peter Pearson of the Friends. "We didn't want to set up a whole separate board or have an elected board. We're only a small part of the general fund, and this way we think we'll get more attention."

Given that the city council currently approves the library's funding level, why do the Friends think the library will do better if the council becomes its board? Because the Friends are also recommending that the library levy appear as a separate line on citizen's truth-in-taxation statements. A recent poll by the Friends revealed that 74 percent of residents would increase their taxes for library services. The Friends have outlined an aggressive timetable to have the new structure in place by January 2003.