The vast majority of 2021 library ballot measures passed, but few were put to a vote, and fewer asked for new funding.

The good news is that fully 94 percent of the operating measures brought to a vote in 2021, along with 77 percent of the building or bond initiatives, passed. However, the not-so-good-news is that there were fewer libraries on the ballot than at any time in recent memory. We were only able to identify 86 library ballot measures across the country: 64 for operations and 22 for buildings. (Some may have gone under the radar owing to lack of reporting through the state library or local press, but that’s true every year, so the downturn is still significant.) While this win rate continues a positive trend for libraries in both even and odd election years, the number of libraries that were not on the ballot could foreshadow fiscal shortfalls and missed opportunities to come.

OPERATING WINS

Notable 2021 library wins include Portage County, OH, where a local option levy passed for the first time. The director, Jon Harris, said that the Portage County Public Library has been trying to pass a local levy since the Nixon administration. Across Ohio, 23 of 23 libraries passed their local levy renewals. In New Orleans, the Yes for NOLA Libraries campaign coalition came together after a contentious December 2020 defeat of a library rededication, which would have shifted at least $6.5 million dollars, or 40 percent of the library’s budget, and placed the balance under mayoral control. This renewal, passed with 70 percent of the vote, ensures that the New Orleans Public Library keeps its current revenue stable for another 20 years. In Auburn Hills, MI, voters approved a $515,000 10-year operating levy, and in Stayton, OR, voters replaced an expiring tax with a five-year operating levy costing the average home $5.95 a month.

Central Arkansas Library System, winner of LJ’s 2021 Jerry Kline Community Impact Prize, saw a solid success as well. More than 71 percent of Little Rock voters approved a proposed 0.5-mill increase to the local property tax rate—the system’s first since 2007—after a citywide sales tax increase proposed by the mayor was defeated two months earlier.

BUILDINGS AND BONDS

On the building side, Carthage, IL, passed a bond and can now leverage a state construction grant award. Likewise, voters in Amherst, MA, ratified a town council decision to spend $35 million alongside a $13.8 million grant from the state to expand and renovate the Jones Library. In Albuquerque, NM, over 70 percent of voters approved a $4.15 million general obligation bond to fund improvements to their libraries. Voters in Belgrade, MT, approved a $14 million bond component of a $16 million building project. And despite the recent politicization of library book challenges across Texas, the cities of Anna, Irving, Midlothian, Plano, and Saginaw all voted to invest in library building projects.

NOT AN AVERAGE YEAR

The story of libraries on the 2021 ballot is notable for how few libraries went to the polls, and how little funding was therefore considered by the voters. Over the previous nine years, an average of 121 libraries asked for operating funding alongside 30 building projects. In 2019, nearly twice as many libraries were on the ballot (148) as this past year. In 2016, fully 168 libraries asked voters to approve funding. Even on the heels of the Great Recession, 114 library budgets and buildings were on the ballot back in 2011.

Coming into 2021, we can assume that COVID-related issues had slowed or stopped boards from going to the ballot. In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, we tracked 170 ballot measures, but many may have decided to go to the polls before the full impact of the coronavirus was realized, and more libraries always go to the voters in presidential election years, hoping to benefit from the larger turnout. Likewise, the January 6 insurrection and widespread disinformation about elections at the start of 2021 may have delayed a decision to go to the voters. A 94 percent winning percentage for operating levies is, by any measure, very healthy. However, only four appear to be a “new” operating tax rather than a renewal. Essentially, our industry has had a lost year asking voters for new funding. This is not a trend that we can afford to see continue.

GET ON THE BALLOT IN 2022

New financial challenges are coming. Funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) must all be allocated by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026. In 2021, over 20 states increased their minimum wage. According to PEW (2021), public pension obligations will take up to 15 percent of states’ revenues. While the pandemic accelerated the trend toward eliminating fines and fees, for some libraries that is simply not possible without new revenue. With the end of ARPA funding in sight for local and state governments as well as libraries, and other pressures mounting, local governments will be considering tax increases to continue their services. With the end of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund allocations for public education coming, local school districts will be considering tax measures, too.

In EveryLibrary’s experience, local government and local schools are much more aggressive and persistent in running ballot measures than public libraries tend to be. Schools and local government will go out for new funding, and will not wait to get permission from the library. In fact, we hear from too many libraries that they have been pressured to wait until a school bond or other local tax passes before they go on the ballot. Unfortunately, we have also worked with a number of libraries who have had tremendous internal reluctance to consider going to the ballot. As a sector, we simply cannot afford to wait until the next fiscal shoe falls or the next recession kicks in before we talk to our voters.

There are no toolkits for planning a ballot measure, but there is good mutual support available. The conversations about your budget or your building(s) are specific to your community. If your budget and the way you allocate your resources are not aligned to realize your mission, vision, and values, you need to be very serious about what the financial remedy is. If the form of your building doesn’t allow you to properly function as a library, you have to start thinking beyond the square footage you need and start the process of talking to your voters. If you have the discretion to go to the ballot, either directly or through a municipal partner, it is an appropriate time to use the tools available under law to ask voters the most important question: Will you vote to fund your library’s future?