Here in Seattle, our public libraries offer a whole lot to kids and families. Last year they provided over 1,300 story times and other early literacy programs, 1,400 hours of free drop-in tutoring and homework help for school-age kids, 5,800 programs at community branches with 130,000 attending, and access to 2.9 million books, and 7,000 digital newspapers and magazines. Not to mention, Seattle Public Library (SPL) is among the top ten library systems worldwide for digital book checkouts.
At the same time, SPL has become a load-bearing institution under the second Trump administration. Amid a national wave of anti-diversity, anti-LGBTQIA+ censorship and the homogenizing effects of AI on human expression and search engine results, libraries nationwide have become a flashpoint in the fight for information freedom as well as a de facto frontline in the social safety net offering free access to resources and a safe, welcoming “third space” for all.
This August, Seattle voters will decide whether a new Library Levy will fund a third of the Seattle Public Library’s total operating expenses for the next seven years. At $480 million, the proposed levy would maintain current open hours and programming across the system, fund deferred maintenance of older branches, expand book collections, and upgrade technology and accessibility.
What? Another levy?
The ideal scenario for paying for all this would be Seattle’s general fund. In Washington, however, local governments are capped at a 1% annual increase in property tax. This hard limit on taxing doesn’t even cover the rate of inflation and has starved local governments of the revenue needed to support basic services — like libraries. Spending beyond that cap must be approved by voters. Thus the endless parade of levies we see on the ballot — for transit, affordable housing, schools, child care, and now, once again, libraries.
Some Seattleites question the price tag of the 2026 Library Levy, which is twice the ask of the last library levy, approved by voters in 2019. This year’s re-up would cost the median homeowner $191 a year, or about $16 a month ($0.23 per $1,000 of assessed home value). But as rising gas and grocery prices continue to break records, critics of the levy balk at the added tax burden. In April, Seattle City Councilmember Maritza Rivera spoke out against 11 amendments to Mayor Katie Wilson’s original $410M proposal. Nevertheless, all 11 passed, adding $69.7 million to the pot, and the council voted to send that final version to voters on the August ballot.
Yazmin Mehdi, board president of the Seattle Public Library, says of the requested sum: “The biggest challenge we have right now is that the cost of ebooks and audiobooks is three to five times the cost of a print book. What that means is that our collection budget no longer goes as far as it used to.”
A levy that reaches beyond libraries
Mehdi points out that funding for Seattle Public Libraries extends beyond its own programs.
“We’re a multiplier,” Mehdi said. “If the Library has funds, that means the nonprofit community that works to support education of all sorts is also going to be supported. We bring in partners to do that work rather than reinvent the wheel.”
Mehdi adds that popular programs like the multilingual Kaleidoscope Play & Learn, Homework Help, Toddler Play Group, and Story Time would be directly impacted if SPL lost a third of its budget.
“The argument that we need to invest less in libraries because the economy sucks is so absolutely counter to how I think about it,” Mehdi said. “Libraries are necessary at all times, but in times of economic struggle, where else are you gonna go to get access to the internet if you can’t afford it at home? I would think that at a time when people are struggling you’d want to support the library being able to offer these things for free.”
Now more than ever
Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck sponsored three amendments to the final levy, including one for a seismic retrofit of the historic Carnegie-designed West Seattle Branch. She outlines the broader contours of the vote this way:
“In a moment like the one we’re in right now, one of fascism and all-out attacks on education and research, protecting and investing in spaces for knowledge is critical and essential,” she says.
“This is also a place where we direct people quite literally to stay warm or stay cool during severe weather events,” Rinck stresses. “The library is a critical part of our social safety net and also critical infrastructure for keeping people safe. Its original purpose was centered on knowledge but it’s become so much more.”
