Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson on Tuesday rolled out the first ballot measure set to go to voters during her term in office, a $410 million renewal of the Seattle Public Library (SPL) levy.
By a three-to-one margin, voters approved the last library levy in 2019. Adjusted for inflation, the new levy is around 50% larger than the previous one, and will last the same amount of time – seven years. The spending plan would focus on providing dollars for core library services, in the face of looming pressure on Seattle's general fund in the coming years, but it also include a number of set-asides for new and expanded programs.
Among the add-ons being touted: $12.6 million for additional all-ages programming at libraries, including story times, $7.7 million for increased security infrastructure and three new security officers, and $4.6 million for e-books and physical materials. On top of $10 million tabbed for deferred maintenance of library buildings, $13 million would pay for seismic upgrades at the historic Columbia City branch.
Despite the increased size of the levy, City officials aren't committing to expanded operating hours at any library branches, and are instead framing the funding boost as allowing the system to maintain the hours that were promised to voters in 2019. Thanks to challenges that have included the Covid-19 pandemic, SPL struggled for years to meet its goals around expanded operating hours, with many branches shuttered more than one day per week until early 2025.
The library levy currently funds around one-third of the Seattle Public Library's budget. A robust renewal ensures that library services continue in the face of likely budget cuts as the Wilson Administration grapples with a projected deficit in 2027 of more than $125 million.
"Seattle is a city of readers, from toddlers discovering their first stories to seniors finding connection and lifelong learning. Our libraries belong to everyone," Wilson said in an announcement from the 10th floor reading room at the iconic Seattle Central Library on Fourth Avenue. "Investing in our libraries means investing in every community member and in the shared public spaces that help our city learn, grow, imagine and thrive."
Renewing the library levy is likely a slam dunk; the 2019 levy was approved by 76% of voters. But it's attracting attention for a reason separate from its line items, in the fact that Seattle is now close to approaching a cap on property tax levies set by state law: $3.60 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. If voters say yes to libraries, the current rate will go from $3.02 to $3.21, with a new Mayor certainly conscious of future needs that may need to be funded with that additional capacity.
"Libraries mean many things to many people in our community. Some libraries are a place to pick up their books or browse our stacks for their next review. Others, libraries are third spaces away from home or work, where they can gather to collaborate with colleagues, chat with their book club friends, design and print the flyover community event, spend time with their children on a Saturday morning, practice a dance routine in one of our meeting rooms, or sit quietly and read the Sunday paper," City Chief Librarian Tom Fay said.
Numerous times during Tuesday's announcement, speakers alluded to the library's aging infrastructure. The Central Library is now old enough to drink, and the most recent new branches are also hitting the two decade mark. There doesn't appear to be any sequel to the 1998 Libraries for All bond measure on the horizon, which allowed SPL to improve every single one of its branches and build four new ones.
Regarded as an essential ingredient to any complete neighborhood, many areas around existing libraries – like Montlake and Madrona – are set to be centers for additional housing growth under the city's recently updated Comprehensive Plan. On the other hand, many growth centers still lack a library, including a broad swath of the city's densest neighborhoods in north Downtown including Uptown, South Lake Union, Belltown, and Eastlake.
On a list of priorities that could use funding from bonds, the library system likely doesn't rank toward the top, no matter how fond Mayor Wilson or other city leaders are of SPL. Seattle Center, the city's largest civic space and a major third place for many city residents, faces a major backlog of deferred maintenance that will likely require a bond issue to pay for.
But Fay told The Urbanist, in response to a question about future library needs, that such a move could be in store for a future year, along with potential private fundraising.
"Down the road, we know to do that, we will have to look at additional measures other than a levy. We may look at capital bonds. We are very fortunate at the library to have a great fundraising partner from the Seattle Public Library Foundation," Fay said. "In Libraries for All, they were the private portion that helped raise additional funds to get the Libraries for All campaign to build all these spaces and so we would contemplate something like that in the future. But this first piece is really about getting our levy established so that we can maintain the services that we have."
Doug Trumm
Amy Sundberg
