Libraries remained mostly strong at the ballot in 2024, but a decline in construction initiatives and tightening budgets speak to the need for increasingly strategic advocacy

In 2024, EveryLibrary and Library Journal tracked 138 library ballot measures on local and statewide ballots. Of those, 115 were for operations, with 101 passing and 14 failing. Sixteen were for building bonds, with 10 passing and six failing. Three were governance questions, which all failed. Three more were defunding or rededication questions; two were rejected and one enacted. The biennial statewide GOBond to fund state aid in New Mexico passed handily once again. Michigan and Ohio operational levies accounted for 70 percent of all questions on the ballot in 2024. The pass/fail rate for operations was 90 percent, which is in line with the 10-year running average of 92 percent. The count of building initiatives at 16 was very low, with an average year seeing 29 facilities projects in front of voters.

Notable wins include new operating funding in Sandoval and Bernalillo counties in New Mexico. In California, Alameda, Sonoma, and Yolo counties, as well as the City of Sacramento, all passed their measures. In Washington State, Spokane Public Library and San Juan Island Library both lifted their levies. It took two attempts to pass the Cabell County Public Library’s excess school levy in West Virginia in 2024, but the measure ultimately succeeded. In Louisiana, Union Parish Public Library and Avoyelles Parish Library will put new funding to work for their communities. The Marshall Public Library passed a sales tax rather than a property tax measure, an option for smaller-sized libraries in Missouri.

However, not all Election Days were good days. The Iberia Parish Library, LA, failed to pass its renewal, and the city of Jonesboro, AR, did not restore the levy to its pre-rollback level. In Illinois, the Northlake Public Library District and the Rochester Public Library District failed to increase their limiting rates. The Henderson Library District and Washoe County Library in Nevada were turned down by their voters. There was significant headwind in several of these no-vote communities. The Rochester Public Library District saw the return of the Illinois chapter of Americans for Prosperity in a multi-channel campaign against the library. Washoe County has been at the center of a significant fight over book bans and programs that seemed to have clouded this tax measure.

Sixty-one Michigan libraries passed their operating levies, while only three failed. Ohio saw 24 pass their levies and three fail. This high renewal rate is comforting during a time of social and political upheavals, providing real stability to those library budgets, and should not be taken for granted in the present climate. But it is also important to recognize that the bulk of those combined 91 ballot questions were renewals or replacements, rather than new funding. In fact, we can only identify a handful of new, additional, or “renewal with an increase levies” anywhere in the country in 2024. While renewals and replacement levies functionally reset the amount of tax collected, they do not change the base rate by which taxes are assessed.

BUDGET PRESSURES ON THE BALLOT

Over time, funding renewals alone will not be enough for the library sector to thrive. According to the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services benchmarks (imls.gov/pls-benchmarking-tables), in 2018, total operating revenue for all public libraries in the United States was $13.7 billion, of which $11.8 billion was raised from local taxes, sometimes in as small a legal service area as one zip code. In 2022, the total operating revenue for public libraries was $15.6 billion, of which local tax revenue was $13.5 billion. Local revenue is always at about 86 percent of total revenue. If we factor in other local activities like fees, fines, and donations, locally sourced revenue is consistently at 92 percent of all funding.

The pressure on library budgets is tremendous. In 2018, the cost of staff at all public libraries was $12.8 billion. Fully two-thirds of all public library budgets go to staff costs. In 2018, the count of all public library staff was 142,475 FTE. By 2022, staff costs grew nearly ten percent to $14.1 billion. Salaries, wages, and benefits in 2022 still accounted for two-thirds—66.3 percent—of expenditures. However, staff headcount in 2022 was down slightly to 142,126 FTE. The numbers of full-time employees in public libraries did not change in those four years. Essentially, all of the $1.3 billion in budget increases for wages and salaries were absorbed by wage compression, increases to state minimum wage levels, and higher cost of benefits.

On the collection side, in 2018 there were 1.76 ebooks per capita and 2.24 print books in public libraries, and the cost of collections was $139 million, which was 10.9 percent of public library budgets. By 2022, that ratio had changed to 4.07 ebooks per capita and 2.02 print books. Cost of collections in 2022 increased to $150 million, but the percentage of library budgets dedicated to collections held steady at 10.7 percent. The $11 million budget increase over that time appears to

have been largely absorbed by the cost of ebook licenses—which are not owned by libraries—rather than by print. Fully 40 percent of libraries in the United States have the ability to go to the ballot to increase their operating revenue. It is more important than ever to ask for new funding and not just renewals. The combined pressures of wages and ebook licenses will otherwise overwhelm libraries’ ability to serve their public properly.

SLOW BUILDING STARTS

The number of library building projects going to the ballot is always small, with a 10-year average of just 33 projects in front of voters each year. However, the 2024 count of 16 total projects is unusually small, with 10 passing and six failing. This 66 percent pass rate is average, but the count is the lowest we have seen since the Great Recession. Notable campaigns were in Maitland, FL, which passed their building bond on the March Republican-only presidential primary. The Rose Memorial Library in Rockland County, NY, made the case with voters after many years of starts and stops. Toledo Lucas County Public Library, OH, will be financing over $150 million for new building projects. Unfortunately, Sunnyvale, CA; Round Lake, IL; and Eaton Rapids, MI, will need to go back to the drawing board.

It is difficult to discover why so few library capital projects were on the ballot this year. It may be a perfect storm of slower planning, increased cost projections, political uncertainty, and other local factors. Some libraries have founnate ways to fund projects besides voter-approved measures. It is important to note that with so few projects going to the ballot on average each year, if just a few more libraries decide to wait, it is amplified in the statistics. The age and condition of America’s more than 17,000 public library buildings vary wildly across the country, and the funding formula for projects is a mélange of voter-approved bonds, public financing, state aid, public-private partnerships, and capital campaigns. In 2023, the Senate Appropriations Committee directed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a survey on the physical conditions and facility needs of public libraries in the United States, which is due this spring. The report should shed light on what the next decade of building projects could look like.

DEFUNDING AND REDEDICATION ON THE BALLOT

In recent election cycles, several libraries faced ballot measures to defund or rededicate funding. In 2024, the Lawrence County Library, AR, was forced to defend its core funding on Election Day after a petition drive, modeled on a similar push against the Craighead County–Jonesboro Library in 2022, qualified. Voters soundly rejected that defunding measure 66 percent to 34 percent. The public library in Garland County, AR (a 2024–25 Kline Award honorable mention), avoided a defunding fight by challenging the petitions there. Coincidently, Jonesboro voters did not vote to restore the funding lost two years prior.

Two Louisiana libraries faced rededication levies, which is when voters are asked to renew or extend a library levy but allow a portion of the revenue to be moved to a non-library project. Louisiana has a long history of attempting to rededicate library levies—which are generally well supported in the state—to other purposes. Voters in St. Martin Parish rededicated 70 percent of the library levy to build a jail, while De Soto Parish voters declined to rededicate 60 percent to general operations of the parish.

TAXPAYER REVOLTS

This comes at a time when discontent over high property taxes is fueling a movement to cut or even eliminate a tax on property. Since 2022, property values nationally have risen over 25 percent faster than inflation. Because property taxes are generally calculated based on the assessed or adjusted market value of property multiplied by the tax rate, significant increases in the selling price of houses have a multiplier effect on the size of individual tax bills. The size of one’s property tax bill—especially after a reassessment year—is obvious to homeowners. Property taxes are often political flashpoints because they are so visible. Sales taxes, which are significant sources of revenue for many states and municipalities, are not reported back to taxpayers cumulatively, and are much more opaque. Income taxes, while reported every April, are disconnected from the services they fund and are more federally focused.

After coming through COVID, elected officials are again feeling the heat from voters over property taxes. Voter discontent is fueling a new property tax revolt that is affecting libraries in both direct and nuanced ways. In 2023, the Iowa legislature took the unusual step of eliminating long-established voter-approved .27 cent property tax levies that fund many libraries, museums, and civic centers—and a dozen other parts of local government. The legislation, HF 718, overrides the will of local voters and creates a five-year window where the municipalities continue to collect the tax but no longer dedicate it as voters intended. Data collected by independent researchers from 97 public libraries and four museums across the state show that the elimination of the .27 cent levy has already begun to erode the financial stability of those institutions. By 2029, the levy will sunset entirely, leaving local towns and cities to find new ways to fund their libraries, if they choose to at all. (EveryLibrary will be publishing that study in April.)

Legislative or voter-approved rollbacks, reductions, or eliminations of property taxes were considered across the country in 2024. North Dakota’s Measure 4 to eliminate all property taxes made the statewide ballot, but failed. Wyoming passed a Constitutional Amendment to allow for changes to property taxes after the governor vetoed a bill to essentially eliminate taxes on residences. A Nebraska proposal narrowly missed making the ballot during a special session on tax reforms. California’s Prop 5, which would have lowered the approval threshold for municipal bonds from 66.7 percent to 55 percent, failed at the polls in November.

And this taxpayer revolt continues. The Indiana legislature is debating SB283, a bill that would end the authority of public libraries to levy taxes and eliminate their status as municipal corporations, placing them under their respective county or counties as departments. Montana is considering at least three bills that would lower or cap residential and commercial tax rates. Illinois populists are pushing a tax freeze bill because “nearly every local government needs to figure out how to save money…find efficiencies and stop unnecessary operations,” as reported in the Denver Gazette.

Despite a strong record of success in renewing library funding at the ballot box, the 2024 results underscore the growing challenges libraries face in securing new and expanded revenue. While operational renewals remain overwhelmingly successful, the decline in building initiatives and the ongoing pressures of rising wages and digital licensing costs signal a need for more proactive advocacy and investment. Libraries cannot rely solely on renewals to sustain their services—new funding measures must be pursued to meet the increasing demands of their communities. As property tax politics and anti-tax movements continue to evolve, the library sector must remain vigilant, strategic, and forward-thinking in making the case for sustainable funding.

John Chrastka is the cofounder and Executive Director of EveryLibrary, the national political action committee for libraries. Martha McGehee, MLS, is the Project Manager at EveryLibrary.