Chelsea Self / Post Independent
A $4 million property tax increase for the Garfield County Library District is so far winning voter approval Tuesday evening.
As of 7 p.m. when voting ended, the roughly 9,450 ballots already counted from early returns had Question 6A up 4,815 votes to 4,558.
The proposed 1.5 mill levy increase to fund the six-branch countywide library system would generate $4 million annually to make up what’s been a $2 million annual drop in revenue since 2015.
According to the Garfield County Assessor’s Office, the additional tax would cost a residential property owner in Garfield County an extra $10.80 per $100,000 of assessed value. A commercial property owner would pay an extra $43.50 per $100,000 of assessed value.
If ultimately approved, roughly 45% of the new yearly revenue is to be budgeted for library staff in an effort to expand library hours back to pre-2017 levels, and eventually add Sunday hours.
According to Garfield Libraries Executive Director Brett Lear, the plan is to hire 28 positions over the next 12-18 months. Most of those would be front-line positions at individual libraries, while a handful would be districtwide support positions.
Should the measure pass, total revenues for the district would be expected to increase from just over $5.5 million to about $9.2 million.
In addition to the staffing increases, the new revenues would include:
- $763,600 extra for general library services, programming and materials;
- $531,800 more for facility maintenance;
- $402,822 for equipment overhead;
- $135,600 additional for professional and technical services;
- $23,472 for advertising and marketing.
The library district is currently funded by a portion of the county’s sales tax and a dedicated property tax mill levy approved by voters in the mid-2000s.
Over that past decade, sales taxes have dwindled in part because of a court-ordered refund and subsequent withholding of sales tax distributions to the county. That case involved oil and gas companies that were determined to have been erroneously assessed sales tax on certain hydraulic fracturing materials.
Compounding the drop in revenue has been a decline in oil and gas production in general in Garfield County, which has impacted the library district and other property tax-dependent entities.
