Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home voters will receive ballots on Friday asking them whether to approve a tax levy for the Sweet Home Public Library.
Ballots are due on Sept. 16. They may be dropped off at the Sweet Home Police Department until 8 p.m. on Sept. 16, City Hall by 5 p.m. on Sept. 16 or sent by mail.
The library has been closed since May when funding ran out. It did not reopen in the new fiscal year, beginning July 1, because no local option levy, used for operations, had been approved by voters.
The library may reopen this year if voters approve the levy, the fourth request for the operating levy that is the sole source of income for the library.
The City Council, which two weeks ago passed a resolution supporting the levy, submitted a request for 60 cents per $1,000, up from 49 cents per $1,000 and down from its last request by nine cents.
Voters turned down a requested increase of nearly 70 percent in November and again in March then a smaller increase, from 49 cents per $1,000 to 69 cents per $1,000, in May.
The library, faced with a shortfall in funds shut down in May. In the March and May elections, the levy was approved by those voting but failed because 50 percent of registered voters did not turn out for the elections. Had the library faced no shortfall, it would have closed on June 30 with the expiration of its operating levy.
With funds exhausted and its operating levy expired, the library cannot open its doors.
The latest levy request was based on the recommendations of a special committee set up to prepare a new levy request. By consensus, the committee recommended a status quo budget request, the minimum it needs to maintain service levels, including a part-time director and three part-time librarians.
There would be no increases in books or circulation materials. Contingency would remain at $2,000, and a previously proposed ending fund balance was reduced by nearly $6,000 to about $50,000 over the four-year life of the levy.
If the levy is approved, which also requires a 50-percent turnout among registered voters, property taxes can be imposed as of July 1, and the library could open after taxes are collected beginning in November.
If the levy fails, even if voters approved a November levy, the library would not be able to open until taxes are collected for the next fiscal year, in November 2004 at the earliest.
November 2004 is the next election when a 50-percent turnout requirement is not imposed.