Thurston County homeowners could pay $53 to $69 more per year in property taxes if voters approve a Timberland Regional Library levy lid lift on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Two advocacy groups are now campaigning for the measure. Brent Caron of the Timberland Library workers union and Rachel Martin of the Patron Coalition for Local Libraries appeared on The Olympia Standard podcast Saturday, Sept. 5, to make the case for the levy. The episode was the podcast's first of the general election campaign season.
The ballot measure would raise TRL's property tax rate from about 22 cents to 35 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The TRL Board of Trustees voted unanimously July 22 to place the measure before voters. It is the library system's first levy lid lift attempt in 17 years. A 2009 effort failed by a narrow margin.
A $3.8 million gap
TRL faces a $3.8 million budget shortfall. The library network projects expenditures will surpass revenues by $2 million in 2026, with the gap growing to a projected negative balance of $2.8 million by 2030 without new funding, The Olympian reported.
TRL eliminated 100 positions between 2021 and 2026, Interim Executive Director Andrea Heisel said in an August Q&A with the Nisqually Valley News. The library district operates 29 branches and five bookmobiles across five counties covering 7,000 square miles.
Washington state law caps annual property tax growth at 1 percent per year, a limit that has not kept pace with TRL's rising costs. The system draws 93.7 percent of its funding from local property taxes.
TRL Board President Brian Mittge framed the choice at the July 22 meeting, as the Nisqually Valley News reported: "We're either going to have to make some pretty substantial cuts to live within our revenue, or voters can approve an increase in their tax rate."
Advocacy takes shape
Martin, a former TRL employee who started as a page at the Olympia Library in 2007, co-organizes the Patron Coalition for Local Libraries with Kylie McQuarrie. The coalition held five community listening sessions across TRL's five-county district in August, concluding Aug. 28 at the Shelton Timberland Library.
"There is no staying the same, something will change: Either things will get better or things will get worse," Martin said at the Shelton session, as The Daily World reported Sept. 2.
The Thurston County Board of County Commissioners also drafted a resolution supporting the levy, included in its Tuesday, Sept. 1 meeting packet. Whether the board formally adopted the resolution has not been confirmed.
Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope has signed up to write the sole argument against the measure in the voter's guide.
What's at stake
If the levy passes, TRL's total revenues in 2027 would jump from about $28.8 million to about $42.8 million, according to The Olympian, citing a presentation at the board's July 18 retreat.
The library system said it would spend the new money in priority order: increasing open hours and staffing, expanding collections, boosting programs for school-age youth and pursuing future facilities projects.
Two sources give different estimates for the annual cost to Thurston County homeowners. The Nisqually Valley News reported $53 per year for the average homeowner district-wide.
TRL spokesperson Chris Chrzan told The Olympian the figure would be about $69 annually for Thurston County residents specifically.
Ballots will be mailed Oct. 16.
