Library funding options before voters in county

Whitman County’s rural library district is asking voters to decide on a number of propositions in the Nov. 3 election.

Voters in all but six county towns are asked to increase the library’s levy rate to $.50 per $1,000 to raise a total of $646,700 in property tax revenue next year.

That amounts to an estimated 11 percent increase over the $581,542 in property taxes collected by the library this year.

The measure has to go before voters under restrictions of Initiative 747, which limits property tax revenue increases to one percent per year unless voters in a district approve a larger sum. State voters approved the initiative in 2001.

Kristie Kirkpatrick, library director, said the one percent limit has cost the library an estimated $60,000 in potential tax revenue since the passage of I-747.

The library’s overall property tax revenues have increased over that span in one percent increments, but its annual overall tax increase has been limited. The rate at which the library has taxed property has decreased to 44.97 cents. The levy rate dropped because the property assessments increased.

The measure asks voters to restore the levy rate to 50 cents per $1,000 assessed value.

Total assessed value of property within the library district is $1.29 billion this year, up from $1.19 billion last year.

Only voters within the library district will vote on the proposal. The district encompasses the unincorporated county, plus the towns of Albion, Colfax, Garfield, LaCrosse, Oakesdale, Palouse, St. John and Tekoa.

Other library measures are on the ballot for Endicott, Farmington and Malden. Voters in those towns are being asked to annex their towns into the library district.

If they approve annexation, the towns will pay the library’s tax levy for library services, while still supplying buildings and paying utilities on those buildings.

Towns not in the library district are charged fees based on the amount of income the town would generate from the library levy.

For Endicott, that meant $4,749 this year. Endicott voters approved a $.51 levy last fall to pay the library fee.

Farmington tapped its general operating fund to pay its $2,700 library fee for this year. The town is asking citizens to approve annexation in order to keep money in reserves to pay for potential emergencies.

Donations from Avista and the Rosalia Lion’s Club helped keep the Malden library open this year, after the town council decided it could not afford the nearly $2,000 cost of maintaining the library.

Annexation of those three towns would leave Colton, Rosalia and Uniontown as the only towns with Whitman County library branches not annexed into the district.

Lamont currently has no library, and Pullman has its own library district which supports Neill Library.