The Eugene City Council and city staff at a work session Monday, Sept. 22, discussed the process for asking voters to renew Eugene’s public library levy, which will expire next June.
Councilors last sent the five-year library to the ballot in 2020. At the time, on a 6-2 vote, they had reduced the tax from the 2015 rate of $0.17 per $1,000 of property value to $0.15. That amounts to an average of about $37 per home per year. The levy was then approved by over three-quarters of voters, compared to about 52% of voters who passed the levy in 2015.
During a Monday presentation, Library Services Director Angela Ocaña said it’s becoming “increasingly difficult” to add services, despite libraries’ success facing a tight budget…