The Presidential election wasn’t the only balloting watched closely by librarians on November 7. Some library measures passed handily, but tax hikes this year were a particularly tough sell.
Minneapolis residents approved a $140-million referendum to build a new central library and renovate existing branches. But in California, library supporters in Contra Costa County, with only 65.8% of the yes votes, once again narrowly lost their bid to raise more than $11 million for more books and longer hours through Proposition L.
State tax measures that would have adversely affected libraries were voted down in Alaska and Colorado. However, I-722, a Washington state initiative that will roll back local property taxes to 1999 levels and have a disastrous effect on local library funding, won approval by 57% of the voters. The city of Seattle, which faces losing $12 million in taxes next year, has started consulting with other districts in joining a lawsuit to challenge the initiative’s passage on constitutional grounds. The November 9 Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that I-722 suffered from the same flaw that doomed last year’s I-695 tax cap because it dealt with more than one issue.
For information on these and other measures, see the complete report in Referenda Roundup, 2000. The report will be updated as new results are received.
Posted November 13, 2000.