Opinion - Our View

POSTED: Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

Still the wrong time for higher county library tax

In April we wrote an editorial saying the Whatcom County Library System should not request a tax increase now, during the worst economic conditions in decades.

Last week we met with library officials and the leader of the "Libraries Yes" lobbying group to talk about why they are requesting the increase on this year's general election ballot.

That meeting left us with two impressions:

First, we believe that members of the current library management is doing everything they can to try and run operations efficiently while still giving residents an exemplary library. Managers have prioritized needs and changed with the times to wisely spend the tax dollars they receive. They need more money to keep service levels unchanged.

Second, it's still the wrong time to ask for a tax increase. We believe taxpayers would rather have slightly reduced service hours than a tax increase at this time.

If the property tax levy increase is approved, property owners would pay about 10 cents more per thousand dollars of property value. So someone with land and a home valued at $300,000, would pay about $30 more a year.

Our economy is in bad shape, and seems unlikely to recover any time soon. According to state figures, the number of people employed in Whatcom County was about 98,250 in September, the lowest monthly total in three years. That's down from nearly 105,000 people working in August 2008. Our county's unemployment rate remains below the state and national averages, but some unemployed people seem to be not filing unemployment claims. Some have gone back to school. Others may have been unemployed so long that their benefits have run out. Some may have just given up.

While there is talk nationally of the recession being over, employment economists say they expect things to get worse the rest of this year and next year. While we all hope it won't happen here, some places in the nation have already experienced more than 10 percent unemployment.

We believe it is irresponsible, even offensive, to ask someone who is out of work and facing real difficulty finding another job to pay even $1 more a year in property tax, let alone $30. It is no better to ask for more money from those who are still working but have seen their pay cut, their retirement savings dwindle, their home mortgage fall apart or who fear that their next paycheck might be their last.

We love libraries. They are an important part of our communities. Services such as providing Internet access for citizens looking for work are of high value. At our meeting, library director Joan Airoldi, administrative services manager Kyle Teeter and community relations coordinator Liz Roberts clearly stated the system's value.

Library officials have taken several steps to increase efficiency, including cutting 3.6 full-time equivalent jobs in the last year, cutting staff training and bookmobile stops.

Officials say they are hampered in their ability to offer services, though, by the 1 percent cap on property tax increases put in place by voters statewide when they approved Initiative 747 in 2001. What the library is asking for in Proposition No. 1 is a lift of that cap.

A quick note here about the tax: Much of the information given out by the "Libraries Yes" organization in support of the ballot measure is incorrect or misleading. They say, for example, that no matter how much new construction and how many new people move to the library's service area, the library could never get more than 1 percent more. That is incorrect. Because of new construction, the library's total budget has gone up by more than 1 percent every since I-747 was put into place.

Unfortunately, that misinformation is even included in the "statement for" the proposition in the voter's guide sent out to residents, where it says the budget "was frozen to a 1 percent annual increase." The library system collected $4.2 million from property taxes in 2006, $5.5 million in 2009 - more than a 1 percent annual increase.

We aren't arguing the system is drowning in money. But in tough times our governments need to make tough choices, just as families do. Library officials say if the levy increase fails, they will be forced to cut a total of 47 hours of open times from their branches, which are in Ferndale, Lynden, Blaine, Everson, Sumas, Deming, Point Roberts, Maple Falls and Lummi Island.

Those types of decisions are unfortunate. But they are necessary in these current economic times. Every government is having to make cuts. At Western Washington University they cut or didn't fill 164 jobs. The city of Bellingham just recently announced cuts at the city's library.

In the end, voters will decide this issue, of course, and we support voters' right to choose to tax themselves if they decide to do so. But we have not changed our core belief that there has never been a worse time for higher taxes.