The Seattle City Council voted to send an almost $480 million levy to the August ballot to fund the library system for seven years. The new levy would replace a voter-approved measure from 2019 that expires at the end of 2024. If the proposal wins a simple majority, the owner of a median-priced home (about $872,000) would pay roughly $163 next year.
The main goals of the proposed levy are to maintain current library hours, bolster safety measures and cover rising system maintenance costs. Unlike the previous initiative, which promised expanded hours and the elimination of overdue fines, the new proposal does not include such high-profile promises. Officials are positioning it as a necessary baseline investment in a critical public good.
Discussion about this tax takes place in a new reality for city officials. Years of successive approvals of various levies have brought Seattle close to the state of Washington’s property tax rate limit. The city has used a significant share of the allowed capacity to finance large programs such as the Move Seattle transportation levy (about $930 million over nine years) and the Seattle Housing Levy (more than $970 million over seven years). Because these voter-approved levies are exceptions to the general state cap, the city has very little room left for future tax measures, which raises concern amid rising living costs.
Councilmember Maritza Rivera, chair of the libraries committee, expressed regret over the size of the levy, saying that given current conditions it is larger than necessary. Nevertheless, she voted to send it to the ballot. Council President Joy Hollingsworth supported increasing funding, noting that residents “overwhelmingly” back libraries and that delaying needed repairs will cost the city more in the long run.
One of the libraries’ most pressing problems is the huge backlog of deferred maintenance. Staff estimate more than $160 million will be required for only critical work over the next 10 years. A major expense item is replacing nearly 10,000 windows at the landmark Central Library designed by Rem Koolhaas. Its unique diagonal lattice facade system consists of thousands of nonstandard glass panels, and their replacement is a complex preservation project requiring specialized design, custom fabrication and careful installation to meet modern standards. In addition, costs to maintain collections continue to rise, as subscriptions for e-books can be more expensive than owning physical copies.
Based on: Seattle council sends library tax proposal to ballot