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February 3, 2011 in News, City
Property tax hike proposed to fund city libraries
Rebecca Pippenger reads an East Side Library book titled “10 Little Rubber Ducks” by Eric Carle, to 3-year-old students at the Southeast Day Care Center on Thursday. Children from the day care visit the library, which is just steps away, once a week. The city of Spokane is considering closing the branch. “We will have some very sad kids,” Pippenger said. Listening to the story are, from left, Azaryiah Hernandez, Adrian Brian, Kristina Gonzales, Tyree Lay (pointing), Ethan Koplan (in red) and Oscar Overholser (front).
(Full-size photo)
Hoping to head off a new round of library closure talks or further cuts to branch hours, the Spokane Public Library is asking city leaders to sponsor a property tax boost on the April 26 ballot.
The Spokane City Council will decide Feb. 14 if it will ask voters for an extra 15 cents for each $1,000 of taxable property value. If successful, the tax would generate an extra $2.3 million a year.
Besides allowing the system to keep all its locations open, the tax would allow all six of the city’s branches to resume full-time hours for the first time in more than a decade. Three branches currently are open only 22 ½ hours a week.
Under the proposal, the owner of a $100,000 property would pay an additional $15 a year.
“It gives us an opportunity to once again provide a level of service that we’d like to provide and that citizens want us to provide,” said library Director Pat Partovi.
Last year, library administrators proposed closing the East Side Library – probably the most controversial suggestion that emerged as the city struggled to balance its budget. Library trustees later approved a budget that kept the branch open after library workers accepted a less-than-expected 1 percent pay raise. Even so, library trustees warned that they were balancing the 2011 budget with reserves that will be depleted by the end of the year – creating even greater likelihood of branch closure talks later this year.
The tax proposal appears to have an uphill climb. Spokane Mayor Mary Verner has not backed the effort.
“I definitely recognize the need in libraries. I’m just struggling to prioritize expanding library services at a time when we are cutting back in public safety,” Verner said.
City Council President Joe Shogan said the proposal could stop the city from considering broader tax boosts that could also benefit police, fire and other city departments.
“The council has got to look at the overall financial health of the city,” Shogan said.
But City Councilman Richard Rush said the electorate doesn’t appear to be in the mood for tax increases for a wide array of services. With the outcry the City Council heard last year about the possible closure of the branch, voters should decide if they want libraries funded to a level of full service.
“My sense is the voters are willing to give additional tax money to the city for very focused, limited purposes,” said Rush, who is sponsoring the proposal to place the tax on the ballot. “I’m just responding to the community who said that they wanted the system preserved and accessible.”
Rush is the City Council liaison to the Spokane Library Board of Trustees, which voted unanimously last month to recommend the tax boost – called a levy lid lift – to the City Council.
“People say they care, and if they care, they need to make sure the money is there,” said Library Trustee Janice Marich.
Library supporters have long argued that the city library system is an afterthought of city government – often losing out to arguments from elected leaders that “public safety” is far-and-away the top funding priority.
The Spokane Public Library’s budget is about $8.5 million. If a property tax increase is approved, officials say the intent would be for the City Council to continue providing about the same amount plus the new tax.
City Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin said she’s sympathetic to the call for a library tax boost but worries that if voters approved the tax the council would feel obligated not to cut libraries as the city braces for another budget shortfall in 2012. That would mean deeper cuts in the rest of city government, she said.
She said depending how the budget shakes out, she would be more open to a property tax that considers the entire budget.
“I want to make sure that we’re really honest with what we try to sell the citizens. We have to take a more holistic look at what is going on in the Spokane city budget.”
But Louise Chadez, who helped rally support last year to keep the East Side branch open, said that given the current anti-tax mood, adding more items to the tax could endanger its passage.
“I would hope that people would find that this isn’t very much and it would go a long way to preserving our libraries,” Chadez said.
Ballots for the April 26 election will be mailed on April 8.
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hawken on February 03 at 7:29 p.m.
Does this surprise anyone? More taxes is always the first solution for government bureaucrats. Cutting programs is heretical in their big government view.
hawken on February 03 at 7:31 p.m.
Oh…. I forgot to mention the kids and puppies are frequently the justification.
polistra on February 03 at 7:38 p.m.
Libraries used to be a necessity for basic public information and culture. Now they’re a luxury, largely serving the leftist political purposes of the librarians.
misjustice on February 03 at 7:51 p.m.
ie: Library only wants $15 per year more, road department only wants $15 more, schools want only $15 more, city water/sewer/trash want only $15 more, aquifer only wants another $15 more, property taxes only want another $50 year more. Now how about fire $15 more, police $15 more, medical $15 more?
Constantly saying “IT”S ONLY $….. THAT WE WANT”. Before we know it we have another $400 added to our annual taxes. Enough is enough!!!! Start doing more cuts because this household can’t afford your $15 ONLY per $100,000 assessed value any more. (Can’t think of very many homes in Spokane that are assessed under $100,000 any more either. So most people are already paying a minimum of $1,000 a year in taxes.)
Cut more waste!! This well is dry.
lowtechmaster on February 03 at 7:53 p.m.
Read my lips…NO NEW TAXES!!
DHF on February 03 at 7:53 p.m.
I am not sure that I read this wright. The City Council will make a decision without a $40.000 Portland Oregon survey. This is a Miracle.
lowtechmaster on February 03 at 7:56 p.m.
We need to cut all the do-nothing “Commissions” the city has!! Then the perks for the elected officials.
misjustice on February 03 at 8:10 p.m.
So much for the “family values” group.
I’d gladly pay the increase; I think it is a worthwhile investment in our community, our children, and our future. But I’m funny that way.
deacon46 on February 03 at 8:19 p.m.
Libraries are relics from a past way of education and community. A city this size and in this day and age could have one library for the so inclined to perpetuate the old days. But NO NEW TAXES. Enough is enough. Let us taxpayers see some bare bones programs and no more studies by out of town consultants. No consultants period.
Cheezwhiz on February 03 at 8:31 p.m.
Where is Tim Eyeman? Didn’t they just jack our assessed value to 120%? I couldn’t sell my house for what it’s assessed for. That was a huge raise for them, without actually raising taxes. It’s never enough.
hawken on February 03 at 8:31 p.m.
I’m thinking there might be better qualified people out there to give a lecture on family values.
suemv on February 03 at 8:54 p.m.
Tell me that the police and fire departments are fully funded. Then we will talk about libraries.
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on February 03 at 9:00 p.m.
The library branch (Shadle) nearest my house is always full of people whenever I go there. I think it’s a great use of my tax $$$, and I plan to vote for this if it shows up on the ballot.
Not expecting to change anybody’s mind, just throwing in my $.02 (or should I say my $15.02).
pseeger on February 03 at 9:01 p.m.
“More taxes is…”? Hawken, perhaps you should spend some time in your library. I’ll even pay your $15!
Cheezwhiz on February 03 at 9:04 p.m.
suemv, we have the fifth largest cops per capita in the entire U.S.!!!! We have more cops per citizen than L.A.! Seems to be over-funded! And they still can’t stay out of trouble.
Recently, they have built new fire stations and bought several new fire trucks, so it doesn’t look like the fire dept is hurting either. Ever wonder why the fire stations have to be made of brick? Or… Why do they keep abandoning fire stations to build new ones? Too small? Keep the one that is paid for and build another small one, far away. The response time would be better if there were more small ones scattered around. And they still can’t stay out of trouble.
Dazzeetrader11 on February 03 at 9:14 p.m.
Worst mayor and easily the goofiest Council president ever!
She and he just spent $6.8 million on a broken down building and she’s now up to $15 miilion old building purchases this year…. It’s not common sense in a down economy. She promised to NOT raise taxes and fees. Remember???
Fire this woman before Spokane is bankrupt.
Govdown on February 03 at 9:38 p.m.
My property taxes were assessed at 5 times higher in 2009 than in 2008. This when property values are going down. And we should want to pay more. Cut the wages of the department that are already making more that a lot or most of us.
jeffleelambert on February 03 at 9:40 p.m.
I support this very small property tax for libraries. We voted to build beautiful libraries so let’s spend the money to keep them open reasonable hours.
greenlibertarian on February 03 at 9:55 p.m.
“DHF on February 03 at 7:53 p.m.
I am not sure that I read this wright. The City Council will make a decision without a $40.000 Portland Oregon survey. This is a Miracle.”
WRIGHT ON!
/shakes head at the utter ignorance on this thread.
lewis8457 on February 03 at 9:56 p.m.
This is what they do they make us decide on taxes for schools or libraries something we all know our young families need. But where does it stop my property taxes go up 12% every single year with no end in site. I just got laid off, but i am supposed to give them more money to waste?
Why aren’t they reverting to ibooks there are many styles out there for 150 bucks or less and they can download any book a person could want.
Paper books are yesterday; they need to be housed in large heated spaces. Plus they need staffs to catalog and put them back on the shelves. Plus they are expensive.
The city makes deal with Barnes and Noble or Amazon who have their own readers and for a fee you can use a reader for a week or two, most of the books are free.
what they are doing to save money is not working so i am supposed to believe the money will go to the libraries but in reality we all know it will go to the general fund. And from there it will never be seen again.
NO More Taxes.
lewis8457 on February 03 at 9:59 p.m.
pseeger will you pay my 15 bucks too?
woamike on February 03 at 10:01 p.m.
“I’d gladly pay the increase; I think it is a worthwhile investment in our community, our children, and our future. But I’m funny that way”
What’s stopping you from writing a check right now?
I don’t think it’s a worthwhile “investment” and your buzzwords of “community”, “our children”, and “our future” have become little more than words to sucker people into throwing money at failed/wasteful programs or programs government has no business being in the business of.
Too much money is being wasted in the libraries on entertainment. Why should tax payers fund subscriptions to “people” magazine and the like? If you want to read the lastest gossip rag or romance novel, go buy it yourself. If you want to listen to some music, turn the radio on. If you want to watch a movie, go buy a ticket or turn the TV on.
The East Side library is under-used and plagued by patrons who fail to return materials. So the solution is to throw more money at it? And people wonder why this country is broke.
I will gladly pay taxes for things like roads, public safety and the necessary, legitimate functions of government. We already pay more than enough for the libraries. They can work with what they have already. If that means consolidating branches, cutting hours, or whatever, so be it.
Again, all of you who think the library system is worthy of more money, knock yourself out. Get out your checkbook and start writing. Keep your hands off of other’s people’s money. Give us the courtesy of spending our hard-earned money how we see fit.
Cheezwhiz on February 03 at 10:01 p.m.
Does anyone remember when the tabs on your car were $500 and then Tim Eyeman helped us get them back to $35? They said our police department, fire department, and libraries would close and criminals would burn your house down.
The reality was that we built new fire stations, bought new fire trucks, hired more cops, bought a cop car for every cop, (remember when we used to have two cops per car and they had crank windows?) computers for every cop car, new libraries, etc, etc, etc…. Don’t let them scare you.
Make them get used to the money they have in their checking account, like the rest of us. When the economy is bad, and no one has money, we tighten the purse strings. We don’t ask for a raise.
If the City is hurting for money so bad, maybe they should ask their employees how to save money. I’d bet they could lay off 50% of the guys leaning on shovels and never know the difference. Ever been to the Engineering Department? What do they really do there? They obviously don’t worry about timing the stop lights for more traffic flow.
SpokyDaBear on February 03 at 10:55 p.m.
Keep one main branch open downtown and close all the other libraries…
greenlibertarian on February 03 at 11:51 p.m.
I rest my case.
Cheezwhiz on February 04 at 12:29 a.m.
Greenlibrarian?
ChefGus/ John Olsen on February 04 at 7:07 a.m.
Libraries and Librarians are the single most important piece of the “Freedom of Speech” that we all on both sides would do well to revere. Folks that want to keep information that is important to our democracy and keep it from becoming a theocracy… our librarians and our journalists, are on the point in combating lies and ignorance. Cultures that “burn books” and people that “burn books/close libraries” are to be feared and fought against. John
lewis8457 on February 04 at 8:29 a.m.
Gus is always all for increased property taxes for city folks that is because he lives in Mead.
woamike on February 04 at 8:33 a.m.
ChefGus -
No one here is talking about burning books or spreading ignorance-where did you get that?
“Our librarians and our journalists, are on the point in combating lies and ignorance” - Maybe that’s the way it once was; now many of them are ignorant and spreading lies themselves.
There is more information avaible on the internet than every book, magazine, cd, dvd, etc. in all the libraries in Spokane combined. We don’t need to keeping throwing money at the Spokane library system. Thanks.
People who don’t agree with you regarding the upcoming levy are not “book burners.” Please don’t be ignorant and spread lies… and stay out of our wallets.
Cheezwhiz on February 04 at 9:01 a.m.
“Gus is always all for increased property taxes for city folks that is because he lives in Mead.”
99% of all Democrats prefer that someone else pays their taxes for them.
misjustice on February 04 at 9:33 a.m.
green; you are correct. Two wrongs won’t make it “wright”.
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on February 04 at 10:07 a.m.
Actually cheezwhiz, I do remember that.
I don’t know about fire & police, but libraries & parks took a big hit. The branch libraries all started closing one [extra] day per week, and closing earlier on the days they were open. Parks got their lawns mowed & trash removed less often. Fees for public pools doubled. (granted they were ridiculously cheap in the first place, but.) I remember asking myself “who benefits from all this?” The license tab reduction saved me about $60 on my 12-year-old Honda, but my brother, who had just bought a giant luxury pickup truck, said he saved around $500. (He doesn’t use libraries or parks, so he never noticed the changes there.)
I remember all this because I’m a gay socialist*, and it was the same year there was a vote on whether to add “sexual orientation” to the city’s list of reasons why a person can’t be fired from their job. It passed, but there were loud predictions that the quality of life in Spokane would decline as a result. Actually some of the things that were predicted did happen, but they happened as a result of the license tab cut.
I wouldn’t be too worried, guys — there’s a good chance that the people who resent libraries for sucking away their tax dollars while giving them nothing in return, outnumber those of us who don’t actually care about children, communities, or the future, but just use those buzzwords to disguise our real purpose, which is to take away as much of your money as we can get.
*(someone on here once linked to a personality test that was supposed to evaluate your political leanings — I took it and learned that I qualified as a Socialist)
509ifyourlucky on February 04 at 10:23 a.m.
Why should the already cash strapped poor property tax payers have to pay more just because you big shots want to restore library hours. I f people want to use the library make those people who enter the library pay oh say $20.00 each time.
When you own a car you pay gas tax, Registration fees so why not have a charge to enter the library or better yet a $50.00 a year fee on library cards. To use the library a person must have a current library card.
Cheezwhiz on February 04 at 10:45 a.m.
thatoneguy, that may have been the immediate result, which you could say was probably to show the City’s contempt for the voters cutting their budget. You have to admit that we now have more libraries than we did before the tabs were reduced. I know of two that have been built since the tabs were reduced. They are both made of brick, just like the new fire stations. Brick isn’t cheap. Libraries are now open the same hours they were. All the parks are now presentable.
Ever think that maybe they use the libraries as a tool to scare the public? They have many tools for scare tools.
I find it strange that politicians always want more taxes. Our taxes are usually based on percentages, so the City gets automatic cost of living increases, other than usage fees for recreation, which go down when the economy is poor. If the economy is good, they want us to raise taxes because we are able. If the economy is poor, they want us to pay more because they don’t have enough money to operate.
Maybe the key is to be more efficient and live within your means. That’s what all of us do. Why can’t they do the same?
When I am broke, I don’t abandon my house and build a new one that is bigger and made of brick. My boss would laugh at me if I told him I need a raise because I can’t afford my mortgage on my new brick house. What do you think he would tell me? You should have planned better? Sell your abandoned house? Sell your new brick house and move back into the cheaper house? That’s what we should be telling our City to do.
Maybe we should have taken a stand when the City was spending money foolishly.
SpokyDaBear on February 04 at 10:59 a.m.
They should extend the library hours to a full 24 hours.
That way the homeless can stay there during the day on the computers surfing porn and playing video games and can keep doing it all night long.
Seriously, have you guys been in the library lately? Barely anybody there, except for the homeless and pedophiles.
The downtown library is extremely dangerous to take child too.
Why should we pay more in taxes for something nobody uses? And when are these tax increases going to stop.
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on February 04 at 11:17 a.m.
Cheezwhiz, you may have a point. I never looked into it to find out where the funding for the new libraries came from; this might be lazy thinking, but I just figured they must have gotten state/federal $$ for it or they wouldn’t be doing it. (Ditto for making them out of brick) Seems like it wouldn’t have gone so smoothly if they’d had to pay for it with local tax hikes. I don’t remember there being a controversy in past years about whether these new library branches were a good use of tax money; but maybe I just wasn’t paying attention, because I do tend to vote in favor of things like that.
Cheezwhiz on February 04 at 11:40 a.m.
thatoneguy, ain’t America great? Our differing points of view seems to keep things in check and running smooth.
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on February 04 at 2:05 p.m.
Yeah, cheezwhiz, America is great. BUT —
People who disagree with me are still allowed to roam the streets freely, with some of their own money still in their pockets.
The struggle can never cease.
eagleproducer on February 08 at 7:53 a.m.
Librarians have a “leftist political agenda?”
In John Birch’s world they do!
Just when I think morons in Spokane can’t get any further to the right, Pollstra comes along to disprove that notion!
libmark on May 27 at 1:08 p.m.
I know this comment is coming late in the game, but it needs to be said.
For those of you who claim that the library is an obsolete institution and that you can get the same stuff for free online, well, you either haven’t used a library recently or at the very least you haven’t been using it to its full potential.
Your library has access to information that you flat-out can’t get to for free anywhere else. Get yourself down to your nearest library and find out what you don’t know. Because it can hurt you.