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Spokane City Voters to Decide Library Funding Measure

Spokane Public Library

For years, the Spokane Public Library’s entire budget came from the city’s general fund. But in 2013, library officials convinced city leaders to let them ask for extra money for what they say was a chronically-underfunded system.

“We were at the verge of having to close down some branches and drastically reduce hours to the public. And the board, as well as city council, came together with a different funding mechanism for libraries. And the levy lid lift was the solution," said library director Andrew Chanse.

In February 2013, about two-thirds of Spokane voters elected to pay extra taxes to keep libraries open and expand hours.

“You might recall back in 2013, East Side, Hillyard and Indian Trail had 22.5 hours per week for the public. And what this levy has allowed us to do is help expand those branch hours up to 40 hours a week," he said. "And we’ve seen significant increase in usage at those branches, upwards of 90% increase in computer usage, more than 40% increase in people coming through our doors. So the community has responded very positively.

And now 11% of the library’s budget, about a million dollars, is paid by this levy money.

“Another thing we were able to accomplish with the levy dollars is to expand our outreach services," Chanse said. "So we were able to add some sites for senior centers. Oftentimes these folks can’t get out to our libraries, so we bring the services to them.”

Chanse says the levy will replace the current levy. It has the same rate. For the owner of a $200,000 home, it amounts to $14 a year for the next seven years.

“The Spokane community, they are library lovers. Given the population, it’s a mid-sized city, we circulated over two-point-three million items last year, which is phenomenal," he said. "We were able to provider over 350-thousand Internet sessions to the public. I think that the community really values its libraries and what we’re able to bring to the table for people.”

The measure needs a simple majority, 50% + one vote, to be approved.