Tag: Library Levy

Guest Contributor, Taxes

Voting “Yes” On Prop. 1 Will Fund the Library System We Deserve
Seattle Central Library, by Guilhem Vellut; CC BY 2.0 license

By Brittney Moraski

As Advocacy Chair for the Seattle Public Library Foundation’s board, I want all Seattleites to know that the quality of our library system is within our control. This summer, we have the opportunity to vote in favor of one-third of the Seattle Public Library’s budget and invest in its future.

On the August 4 primary ballot, Seattle voters will be asked to replace the expiring 2019 Library Levy with a $479 million package. This is funding that cannot be met by philanthropic or other governmental sources. To sustain the system we know, love, and use, please vote yes.

Whether you’re checking out an e-book or e-audiobook through the Libby app, reserving a meeting room, picking up a book after-hours at a holds locker, watching movies on DVD or through Hoopla, finding respite from the heat, practicing music, attending programs like Story Time, or participating in Summer Book Bingo, there are endless ways to “visit” the library. The Seattle Public Library is one of the only places in our city that Seattle residents can enjoy without having to spend additional money, as a record number of people are discovering: In 2025, there were 430,000 active Library users.

The replacement levy further expands the Library’s reach and impact on Seattle. It would add staff to enhance literacy and learning programming, like book readings by authors, and make that programming more accessible by broadcasting it on the Seattle Channel. The new levy also invests more in physical and digital materials, which will reduce wait times for in-demand books. It would also upgrade technology hardware and software needed to connect library users to the digital world.

I know some voters may question the price tag of this year’s proposed levy, which is larger than the levy passed in 2019. But the new investments are necessary additions that reflect growing library use. More than 70 percent of the new $479 million levy will go toward continuing operating hours, collections, and programs provided in the 2019 levy, including popular programs like No Late Fines and Peak Picks. Furthermore, these voter-approved dollars will fund a quarter of Library staff over the next seven years.

In addition to supporting collections and programs, the 2026 Library Levy is essential to maintaining the physical spaces of the library. Despite its futuristic appearance, the Central Library is now more than 20 years old, and this well-loved place is showing its age. The levy will fund improvements at Central, ensuring that the space remains welcoming to the thousands who visit it each day. Additionally, the levy will fund seismic retrofits of the Columbia and West Seattle branches and maintain elevators and escalators at locations throughout the city. These investments are critical to keeping our libraries safe and accessible to everyone.

All of this comes at good value for Seattle residents: The average homeowner will pay an additional $9 a month, less than the cost of a paperback book. Levy spending is overseen by an independent Board of Trustees, with quarterly and annual reports from the Library available to the public. And while concerns over the city’s state-mandated levy cap are legitimate, this issue is larger than the scope of this levy, which makes up just 7 percent of overall city property taxes.

At a time of layoffs and high prices in an already expensive city, I take it seriously to ask my fellow residents, homeowners and renters alike, to voluntarily tax themselves to fund our libraries. However, the books and services the Library provides are all the more important during times of economic hardship. From early learning programs for families to skill-building for job seekers to retirement preparation for seniors, the Library provides resources for people at every stage of life. Failure to pass this Levy would remove a third of the Library’s funding—jeopardizing an institution that serves as a lifeline and a catalyst for so many Seattle residents.

A thriving library system is the foundation of an affordable city, a bulwark against disinformation, and a place where those who will create the world we yearn for—entrepreneurs, free thinkers, and activists—find their voice and way. Seattle voters get to decide the kind of library system we have. Together, let’s ensure it remains an outstanding one.

Brittney Moraski is a Seattle Public Library Foundation Board Member and Advocacy Chair.

 

 

City Council

Larger Library Levy Moves Forward; Founder of AI Worker Surveillance Startup Appointed to Ethics Commission
Seattle librarian Betsy Kluck-Keil holds up a “visual aid” at the library levy committee meeting Wednesday—a t-shirt that reads, “library > Google”

1. The Seattle City Council’s library levy committee, which includes all nine councilmembers, approved amendments to this year’s library levy proposal that will add almost $70 million to Mayor Katie Wilson’s initial $410 million proposal. Maritza Rivera, who chairs the committee, voted against every one of her colleagues’ amendments, saying that while “I love libraries,” increasing the levy further was fiscally irresponsible.

“With the proposed package, we would have $310 million left for future levies, including the housing and transportation levies. If all the amendments pass today, then we will only have $230 million left. The additions from the amendments today, while worthy, are increasing items that are already in the mayor’s package at a time when we can’t afford more. We know there are other needs that are coming. Let’s face it, we’re only in year two of this madman in the President’s president’s seat. Who knows? Who knows what else we will have to deal with. And of course, everyone keeps talking about affordability in Seattle these days, that seems more real than ever.

The city faces a state-mandated property tax cap of $3.60 per $1,000 in home value; the new levy, which is virtually certain to pass, will leave Seattle with just $310 million in capacity for future levies, such as the housing and transportation levies, Rivera said.

“If I felt that we could add this levy without jeopardizing future levies or adding to our affordability crisis, I too would add more,” Rivera said. “We don’t have a crystal ball to predict what will happen in the future. We’re operating with the knowledge that we have today. There is no judgment here. There is this is not about who loves the libraries more. This is about fiscal responsibility and our ability to pay for all our needs.”

The levy cap is a real, looming issue, and one the council should arguably be taking on more directly—for instance, by advocating for broad changes to property tax law in Olympia. If it isn’t the library levy, it will be the Seattle Transit Measure, or the next transportation levy, or election funding, or Seattle Center—whatever unlucky levy happens to fall in a year that Seattle’s property taxes finally touch the cap.

The amendments the committee passed include funding for repairs and maintenance at the Central Library downtown, seismic upgrades at the Columbia Branch library, multilingual children’s programming, and elevator and escalator maintenance, and air conditioning in libraries that current lack it. In an apparent response to Rivera’s comment, last month, that the city has federal FEMA dollars coming in to pay for cooling systems in five libraries, Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck said, “I would note that trusting our library’s future to Donald Trump’s FEMA is irresponsible.”

Deferring maintenance always leads to higher costs down the line, Rinck added. “Any pennies we pinch now will will cost us dollars seven years from now.”

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2. On Thursday, the city council’s governance committee voted unanimously (with three councilmembers present) to appoint Evan Smith, the founder of a company called Ethosphere, to serve on the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission. Ethosphere sells AI software to retail companies so that they can spy on their sales associates—or, as a boosterish Geekwire profile put it, “help associates improve their performance while giving managers better visibility into what drives sales.”

Retail companies that use Ethosphere’s system—and it’s unclear at this point which, if any, retailers have signed up—will require floor staff to wear microphones that record every conversation they have on their shift; these recordings get transcribed and analyzed by AI large language models “to assess how well employees followed the brand’s selling approach,” according to Geekwire. Sales associates the AI finds out of compliance could be penalized, retrained, or fired.

For anyone who’s worked retail, the dystopian nature of this kind of “productivity” software is obvious; selling khakis for minimum wage could soon mean submitting to intense surveillance by companies that consider workers interchangeable sales pitch dissemination machines.

None of that is directly related to the work of the ethics commission, which decides whether elected officials have violated ethics and elections law, among other responsibilities. But it does indicate on which side of the management-worker divide Smith’s sympathies fall. Smith didn’t show up for his nomination hearing on Thursday; according to Ethics and Elections director Wayne Barnett, he was “in San Francisco.”

City Council, Taxes

Rivera Plays Grinch to Library Supporters, Saka Holds Committee Hostage for Extended NBA Rally

1. Seattle City Councilmember Maritza Rivera played Grinch to library supporters earlier this week, saying she will not support any amendments that raise the price of a $410 million library levy proposed by Mayor Katie Wilson last month. After a parade of library supporters told Rivera’s select committee on the library levy that they support increasing funds for operations and maintenance but the city could do more, Rivera said it
“would be fiscally irresponsible to increase the proposal given the city’s other needs.”

“It is unfortunate,” she continued, “that this is the city’s financial reality, and I take no joy in bringing this up, but this is where we are now,” given growing uncertainty about the national economy and the fact that the city is approaching a state-imposed cap on property taxes. Under state law, local levies can’t exceed $3.60 per $1,000 of property value. Seattle and King County are both approaching the cap, which can only go up if the state legislature decides to increase it.

Wilson’s proposal represents about a 47 percent increase over the 2019 levy, adjusted for inflation; the council’s amendments, which include funding for maintenance at the beautiful but hard-used downtown library, a seismic retrofit at the Columbia Branch library, built in 1915, and cooling systems, would push the total closer to half a billion dollars. (Dan Strauss declined to provide a price tag for his three amendments).

Rivera acknowledged that some amendments will probably make it through over her objections. She wanted to make it clear that she supports libraries, she added, lest she become a victim of online “cancel culture.”

2. Council chambers were turned into an NBA booster clubhouse for about 90 minutes on Thursday morning, as Councilmember Rob Saka gathered a group of Sonics supporters to effuse about how excited they are to “bring back our Sonics” in an extended pep rally that took up 90 minutes of Saka’s transportation and Seattle Center committee.

Saka, who made up his own “informal” committee title and added “sports” to its name, did come prepared with a list of questions for the panel, which included Deputy Mayor Brian Surratt, prominent Republican (and former NBA player) Spencer Hawes, Save Our Sonics founder Brian Robinson, and a rep from Climate Pledge Arena. A sampling:

“What excites you the most about the prospect welcoming our Sonics back home?”

“What are the strongest indicators today that Seattle is an undeniable NBA market?”

“Where do grassroots efforts like Seattle NBA fans have the most influence and impact?”

” What makes Seattle uniquely prepared and positioned to become the sixth city to have a team in all six leagues?”

“What story about Seattle basketball is resonating most right now?”

“What’s your preferred color for a new NBA franchise in Seattle?”

And this one, just for council members: “What will the headline read the day the Sonics finally do return?”

No word on whether Saka had a basketball hidden behind the dais.