Spokane city library director Andrew Chanse is going out on a limb. He’s calling out City Hall for extending a 5% tax cut instituted earlier this year to help the city balance its budget.
The city proposes to keep library spending at the same level in 2026.
The mayor’s office issued a statement saying it recognizes the value of libraries to the public, but that all city departments have been asked to reduce their spending.
But Chanse is still fighting back. He spoke with SPR’s Doug Nadvornick.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
DOUG NADVORNICK: You put out a public email essentially telling people, if you don't believe that the library should be subject to budget cuts because of the tough budget situation, call your council member. Why did you do that?
ANDREW CHANSE: You know, we're in a situation and we've been in this situation, you know, for the past 12, 13 years where the general fund just really doesn't support library operations in an adequate way. And we're told as a department to go get the money and ask the public for their vote for our operations. And the public has emphatically supported us each time. I've implemented now three levy measures for operations and one bond measure to redo our facilities. And they vote yes. So to turn around when we last went for our ballot measure in 2024, 2025 is the first year of this levy. And to receive a cut, it just doesn't make sense.
It's going against what the people had said they wanted. And, you know, I think that we have to honor what the people voted for. Otherwise, you know, we're disenfranchising our voters.
DN: So maybe just a quick civics lesson. Spokane has the Spokane County Library District, which has its own direct funding mechanism. Is that what the Spokane City Library, is that how it's paid for?
AC: Our operations are paid through a combination of roughly 82 percent of our dollars come from the general fund, which is sales tax revenue. The other 18 percent comes from a levy on property. And that is what we go out to voters for. And it has really made a difference over the past 12, 13 years where you see these expanded hours.
And when we ran the 2024 levy, it was a mutual understanding between, you know, the city administration, the prior city administration and city council that this measure is being run in order to keep operations the same, the same access, the same days, the same hours, the same type of programs. That's what we ran this measure on. And I think that we need to fulfill that promise.
DN: So that, say, 18 percent of your budget that comes from that, that's not being cut at all. It's your portion of the general fund that's being cut.
AC: Exactly. Yep. And we were able to absorb a 5 percent cut this year. We changed around some of our operating hours. We modified them slightly. It's still the same amount of hours. But we looked at the data to see where the usage is, you know, has the most impact.
And we modified and expanded Friday and Saturday and shaved off an hour at the end of some evenings. But that allowed, you know, it was just a smarter way to do our scheduling. And we were able to save some dollars in order to meet that 5 percent cut. And, you know, we take these cuts or these flat allocations from the city general fund. We've been able to absorb those. We're just at a point where we can no longer do that. The funds are not there. Our reserve balance, we are pulling from that.
And, you know, if we're on this trajectory for this amount of dollars from the general fund, we won't have enough money for 2027. We won't have enough money for the end of 2026. So something needs to be done in order to meet the expectations of the public.
DN: So how do you anticipate what you offer changing according to the amount of money that you're looking at for next year?
AC: Yeah. So we'll need to have that discussion with the board of trustees. That would be at an open public meeting. But we really don't have many levers that we can pull as far as operations.
We're an organization that relies on staff in order for service. So, you know, reducing staff would be one impact, which in turn means reduced hours, probably reduced days throughout the week. You'd see a reduction in our collections, which is already pretty razor thin when you're trying to meet the needs of both a digital and a physical format.
You know, you'd see less after hours activities where the community comes in and puts on these events in our facilities. We probably wouldn't have enough staff to really perform at the level that we've been performing at.
DN: Do you envision a day when the Spokane Public Library will have the same structure, funding structures, the Spokane County Library District, where all of your funding comes through a voter supported property tax levy?
AC: Yeah, I can't necessarily see that happening. There would need to be a change in state law to allow a municipality to get a dedicated amount like that for a city of our size. You can do it with parks, but you can't do it with libraries. And we've been talking with legislators for the past decade or so about maybe changing that, but there doesn't seem to be enough political will at this point.
