Please take a quiet moment to read this. It is important if we want our Library to continue being funded…
A little more on levy lids and lifts ~ a brief summary from AI:
A levy lid is the maximum amount of money that a Washington State taxing district can collect each year through property taxes, which is typically capped at a 1% increase over the previous year’s levy. A levy lid lift is a ballot measure that allows voters to exceed this 1% cap, enabling the taxing district to collect more property tax revenue for a specified period or permanently, depending on the ballot.
How it Works
- The “Lid”: State law sets limits on annual property tax increases, often referred to as the “levy lid” or “1% limit”. This is the standard allowed annual increase in the total dollar amount of the levy, not the tax rate itself.
- The “Lift”: When a taxing district’s costs (like inflation, salaries, and other operational expenses) rise faster than the 1% annual revenue increase, they may hold an election to ask voters for approval for a “levy lid lift”.
- Voter Approval: The taxing district must get voter approval to lift the lid.
- Types of Lifts:
- Single-Year Lid Lift: Allows for an increase above the 1% limit for one year only. The funds are often placed in a reserve fund for future use, but the base for the 1% increases remains the same unless the levy is permanent.
- Permanent Lid Lift: This allows a taxing district to exceed the 1% limit in one year, and the higher amount then becomes the new base for all future 1% annual levy increases.
- Temporary Lid Lift: Allows for an increase above the 1% limit for a specified number of years, after which the levy reverts to its standard 1% annual increases.
Why They Are Used
- Funding Services: Lid lifts provide a way to increase funding for essential public services like public safety, libraries, and infrastructure when costs are rising faster than what the standard 1% annual property tax increase allows.
- Financial Sustainability: By allowing a larger, one-time increase, a lid lift can provide more financial sustainability for a taxing district to meet growing demands and manage increasing costs.
Here are the reasons this levy lid lift helps our Library, and what is threatened if adequate funding doesn’t continue…
I love our Library. It is a wonderful space managed by lovely people. It is a needed space for anyone who wants a quiet, comfortable, even cozy place to work, think, read, write, socialize outside, or join others in meeting rooms for math tutoring, Girl Scout meetings, playing Mah Jongg and everything in between.
Through the years, I have enjoyed the Library in such varied ways – working on publishing three different books, tutoring various students in reading and math, attending instrumental concerts, meeting with an attorney, dressing up for a Dolly Parton event, building a plant terrarium, meeting with people who have disabilities, meeting with people who suffer from traumatic brain injuries, competing in a chess tournament, listening to a lecture by a grunge music producer, learning about about the lives of famous composers in a four-part lecture series, eating cookies at the Annual Library Tea, and wallowing in the delightful visual array of handmade items kids sell each year at the Annual Children’s Christmas Market.
In addition to all of the possibilities that the space provides us, I imagine it is one of the nicer libraries we could ever have the opportunity to enjoy – the friendly staff, the warm and inviting interior, the beautiful exterior landscaping, and even a view of the sea, whether sparkling in the sunshine or shadowed beneath dark, ominous clouds. Many a winter afternoon I have sat writing at a desk next to the window, gazing out at the fading light, watching storm clouds move in and begin pouring on the earth that is only a few inches from my face, with only a pane of glass demarcating a world fully exposed to the elements from another world that is gratefully peaceful, warm, and dry. In the low December light punctuated by a bright lamp beside me, I have whispered words of thankfulness for getting to be there in the quiet stillness.
I support the levy lid lift because I don’t want the Library to have reduced hours, reduced staffing, reduced programming, or reduced provision of free space to the community due to severe federal cuts in funding that are making this vote necessary.
If you don’t spend any time at the Library, you might want to see what you’re missing. It is so important that we all have places to go aside from our homes – for learning, meeting, connecting, pausing, and being. The Library has always been a second home for me.
I will leave you with some images of my own experiences there over the years…
Please vote in favor of Library funding when November rolls around. Thank you.
