Council to consider issue Monday

Library Director Ed Gallagher will urge the Albany City Council Monday to approve formation of a countywide taxing district to take over operation of the city library.

“One outcome for today,” he wrote in a memo to the council, “would be to join with Lebanon, Sweet Home, Millersburg, Tangent, Halsey, Scio, Sodaville, Waterloo and all their staff and various boards, by agreeing to support a ballot measure to allow the voters to decide for themselves about significant improvement to library services via the proposed district.”

The city council meets at 4 p.m. Monday at City Hall.

Unless the council approves, Albany could not become part of the district if it is formed.

Gallagher and other backers of the district say it would have a tax rate of 68 cents per $1,000.

In his memo, Gallagher suggested the council could make up for that tax increase by lowering the city’s property tax levy.

If the city does not lower its tax rate, according to the Gallagher memo, the added library tax would cut city tax revenue only a little — about $9,000 — because of “compression” under Measure 5, which limits general government property taxes for operations to $10 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Gallagher said all library employees would be transferred to the new district, and he made this added point: “I would personally relish the opportunity to provide leadership in whatever capacity for such an exciting project.”

He added more argument to his memo:

“The library community in Albany supports placing this issue before the voters. Throughout the state and across the country, library districts have become the best practice for delivering high-quality library services at the best price.”

And he added: “I believe this endeavor is a very solid example of effective government and would provide a high level of sustainable library services to the citizens of Albany for generations to come.”

Formation of the taxing district has been pushed by the Linn Library League, which plans to circulate a petition and then ask the county commissioners to put the formation of the district on the ballot this November.

The county commissioners could put the proposal on the ballot on their own, but Linn commissioners have not done so in 30 years.

Commissioner Roger Nyquist said that if the backers come in with enough signatures — around 8,200 would be required, he said — the board probably will put it on the ballot after examining the boundaries and considering any requests by property owners to remain outside the district.

Democrat-Herald