A defeated proposal to establish a Greater Spokane Valley taxing district to build and expand libraries likely won’t be presented again on the May ballot.

Spokane County Library District trustees will discuss their options next Tuesday, but district Director Michael Wirt said he is confident trustees won’t pursue a quick re-vote.

“It was too big a margin to believe that there’s anything that could be done in terms of public education in two months to sway it either way,” Wirt said.

In election night results Tuesday, 51.3 percent voters in Spokane Valley, Millwood and surrounding unincorporated areas opposed creation of a Greater Spokane Valley Library Capital Facility Area.

More significantly, 55.3 percent of voters opposed a $33.4 million bond measure.

While the taxing district could have been created with a simple majority, the bond measure required at least 60 percent support. Thus, the bonds failed by almost 15 percentage points.

Wirt saw four factors in the twin defeats: the deteriorating economy, competing demands for more tax money, satisfaction with current library service and association with Spokane Valley’s Sprague-Appleway revitalization plan.

The plan calls for creation of a city center district with a new Spokane Valley Library as a cornerstone. Tuesday’s bond measure would have provided that library as well as a new library at the east end of the city and expansion of the Argonne Library just north of Millwood.

Wirt said newspaper letters to the editor and signs “sprouted up toward the end of last week” suggesting a vote against the library proposals would be a vote against the city project.

“I would imagine that cost votes,” Wirt said. “So, add it all together and it’s a perfect storm, to use a very trite expression.”

Wirt said the library district was working on plans to replace its heavily used Spokane Valley Library before the city of Spokane Valley was incorporated.

If there is to be city center, that’s where the new library should be, Wirt said.

“If the whole city center idea crashes and burns, we would still at some point, I would imagine, go ahead and propose that there should be a new Spokane Valley Library because there are a lot of reasons there ought to be,” Wirt said.

Tuesday’s library district trustee meeting will be at 4 p.m. in the basement meeting room of the Spokane Valley Library, 12004 E. Main Ave.