Local library advocates organizing through the group Fund Our Libraries Now are asking the Salem City Council to seek voter approval for a property tax increase to fund the city’s library system.
The city council will meet Monday at 6 p.m. to continue discussions about how to best address the city’s $15 million budget deficit expected in the next year.
Library leaders cut hours in January, closing the main library branch on Sunday and reducing the West Salem branch to two days per week.
If the city doesn’t raise more revenue through taxes, fees or other means, City Manager Keith Stahley’s budget plans call for deep cuts, including the closure of the West Salem branch next year.
Fund Our Libraries Now organizers want the council to prioritize stable library funding to avoid future cuts.
“It’s a community center. It brings people together from all walks of life and all ages. It’s a gathering place. We don’t have that,” said Jim Scheppke, former state librarian and a leader of the Fund Our Libraries Now group. “If we don’t have the library, where else is there? Community. That is what it is all about.” During the council’s July 15 meeting, representatives from the city-appointed volunteer revenue task force presented eight options to help address the city deficit. Those include putting both a livability levy to fund the library, parks, recreation, and Center 50+; or a public safety levy that would fund police and fire services, on the ballot next May.
Councilors generally appeared supportive of a levy, though they haven’t decided on a course of action or indicated which set of city services they’d seek to fund.
How to participate
The meeting starts at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19, and will be both in-person at the council chambers, 555 Liberty St. S.E., and available to watch online. Members of the public can submit a comment for any item on the council agenda.
To comment remotely, sign up on the city website between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday. The meeting will be livestreamed on the YouTube in English and Spanish.
For written comments, email [email protected] before 5 p.m. on Monday, or submit on paper to the city recorder’s office at the Civic Center, 555 Liberty St. S.E., room 225. Include a statement indicating the comment is for the public record.
Fund Our Libraries Now supporters submitted public comments for Monday’s meeting urging councilors to let Salemites vote in May on a livability levy to restore library hours.
“As a library user the juxtaposition of the terrifically remodeled and safe Main Library and the 2023-2024 curtailment of hours and services is head- shaking,” Salem resident Mary Ginnane said in written comments submitted to the council. “No evening hours? Only one weekend day to access materials? Very disappointing for a capital city. Across the river in West Salem library branch hours are so limited that the residents (and those in East Salem) must travel downtown for full-service access. There are visible inequity issues with the current library situation even with the availability of digital access to extend some services.”
Scheppke said something has to be done quickly to ensure Salem doesn’t wind up not having a library at all.
The group has collected hundreds of signatures from community members who said they would support a local option levy to support the library.
“We’ve got a movement going. And our goal is to be on the ballot next May. Because if we are not on the ballot, things are going to get much worse. They almost got much worse this year,” Scheppke said.
More cuts to the tune of $1.2 million were proposed in the spring, which would have closed the West Salem branch and reduced hours at the main branch. Those were avoided after an outpouring of public support for the library led the city’s budget committee to draw on city savings to temporarily fund the library for another year.
Currently, the Salem library is open a total of 48 hours a week between its two branches. The main library on 585 Liberty Street S.E. is open Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The West Salem branch is open on Tuesday from 1-6 p.m. and on Saturday from 12-5 p.m.
The current library schedule was the result of cuts made last winter when the main library lost Sundays and two hours in the evening Tuesday through Thursday and another hour on Friday and Saturday evenings. The West Salem branch saw even deeper cuts from 30 hours a week to 10 hours a week.
Scheppke said the objective of the group at this point is to put specific levy options before city council for consideration as a way to solve the library’s chronic funding problems. He said several libraries around the state, comparable in size to Salem, all have local option levies funding their library systems.
“What libraries have learned is you go out and ask for a levy on top of whatever general fund money you have, and people say yes. Because people love libraries,” Scheppke said. “They want good libraries. We have 23 libraries in Oregon that have local option levies. So, we are just trying to emulate Eugene, Corvallis, Hillsboro, and Beaverton.”
Salem’s library is already among the worst-funded in Oregon, ranking 112th out of 136 in per-person revenue in 2022-23, according to data from the State Library of Oregon.
The city revenue task force’s recommendations were vague about the amount of money the city might raise through a levy. Scheppke outlined three possible levy scenarios in comments submitted to the council. He said a library levy that raised $5 million in property taxes — about $7 per month for an average homeowner — would pay for keeping the main library open seven days a week, including three evenings, and would expand the West Salem branch’s hours to five or six days a week.
Larger levy amounts could pair library funding with restoring money to city parks and Center 50+, or pay for police and fire services, which would give the city’s general fund more money to pay for a library, Scheppke’s analysis said.
City Librarian Bridget Esqueda referred questions about those numbers to city spokeswoman Elizabeth Kennedy-Wong, who said it would not be appropriate for the city to comment on the future of the library without additional information and council direction.
“We are still quite early in this process and are focused on supporting City Council to make the best decisions for the community,” Kennedy-Wong said.
As councilors weigh options, a key consideration will be what services voters would be willing to pay more for.
Ward 5 City Councilor Jose Gonzalez, who represents northeast Salem, said he absolutely supports funding the library and hopes to see Salem get another branch. But, he said, a public safety levy would have the highest chance of gaining acceptance from voters.
“The number one thing I would say is 99.9% of the communications (from constituents) I’ve received are directly connected to how safe they feel,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said a public safety levy would help support police, but it could also support other services, like resources to help address homelessness. He also said his constituents have different priorities.
“I don’t think anybody has asked for a library in Ward 5. If anything, what they’ve asked for is a community center,” Gonzalez said.
Several community members stopped in front of the main library and signed a petition in support of funding the library on Aug. 10.
Beth Fox was one of the petition signers and said the misconception about the library is that it is all about books.
“It is just an amazing resource for the entire community. I think that a lot of people don’t even understand what all is here. Of course they provide a variety of books from several libraries, but they also have different kinds of programs. Music and lectures,” Fox said. “They also have a system whereby you can check out things that are not books like instruments or kitchen appliances. They have programs for children where you can read to a pet. They have other programs for people who are learning English as a second language. It is remarkable all the different things they can do.”
Fox said she would have no problem with an increase in her taxes to help fund the library system. She hopes the voters will have the chance to choose to fund the library sufficiently and from now on.
“I don’t know if that’s going to happen,” Fox said. “All I know is that this is a resource that we can’t lose.”
Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.
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Joe Siess is a reporter for Salem Reporter. Joe joined Salem Reporter in 2024 and primarily covers city and county government but loves surprises. Joe previously reported for the Redmond Spokesman, the Bulletin in Bend, Klamath Falls Herald and News and the Malheur Enterprise. He was born in Independence, MO, where the Oregon Trail officially starts, and grew up in the Kansas City area.
