City Council wants Seattle voters to double another property tax levy for the library
SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council has unanimously embraced Mayor Jenny Durkan's $219 million "Libraries for All" property tax levy, the latest occasion on which the City Council has doubled a levy in sending it to the August ballot.
The $219 million, seven year levy replaces an expiring $123 million levy.
In praising the Council, Durkan said she is "mindful that affordability is a challenge in Seattle," but cited a litany of eliminating fines for overdue books, longer hours, more digital resources and building retrofits.
The Mayor promised in her 2017 campaign the better delivery of basic city services, and broadly hinted that she would display mercy in asking for property tax increases.
But in 2018, she championed and passed a $619 million Families and Education Levy, more than doubling the two levies it replaced. It boosted the annual tax bill for an average Seattle home from $136 to $248.
The Mayor has treated Libraries for All as if the tax bill is small change.
"We believe this additional investment is so important and we will get so much for such a small amount," she said at an unveiling ceremony last month in Lake City.
The Council agreed on an 8-0 vote.
Durkan has not been the only levy-doubling politician of late. The King County Council voted lastweek to send an $810 million, six-year Parks Levy to the August primary ballot. The levy nearly doubles the county's expiring $420 million parks levy.
Voters in Seattle have been consistently generous to money requests from the Emerald City's political class.
They passed in 2015 the mother of all levies, the $930 million Move Seattle transportation levy which nearly tripled the $361 million 2006 "Bridging the Gap" levy it replaces. Arterials decorated with "Fix this Street" signs, in both campaigns, remain unfixed.
Since the passage of Move Seattle, the city has announced that it must scale back some projects promised in getting interest groups on board.
In boosting the "Libraries for All" levy, Durkan turned to a familiar theme: "If we are going to build a city of the future, then we must build libraries of the future."
Can the middle class in Seattle afford this mayor?
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