The tax was created by voters in 2017 to permanently fund the community library. The couple argued they don’t benefit from the library, so the Commissioners agreed to let them stop paying the tax. Since then, more people have asked to have their properties removed from the tax district, and the library has pursued legal action against the county. Both sides are now waiting for a decision from a circuit court judge in this unprecedented case. JPR’s Jane Vaughan recently spoke with Buzzy Nielsen, a program manager for the State Library of Oregon, about these efforts to opt out of the district.
Jane Vaughan: Earlier this month, the State Library of Oregon sent out two letters about this to the directors of Oregon library districts and to the larger Oregon library community. Can you explain what the role is of the State Library in this situation?
Buzzy Nielsen: We serve a particular role with public libraries. We serve a very minor regulatory role. And we also are the agency that kind of oversees laws related to public libraries. So that both includes the formation of public libraries and also includes the law specific to the formation of library districts.
JV: I didn't realize how common this type of library tax is in Oregon. One of the letters said that most people in the state have their library funded by community tax districts. Why do you think that's so important?
BN: Community tax districts are the most stable way to fund a public library in Oregon. There are actually community taxing districts for a number of different kinds of services for that reason, you know, fire service, water, parks and recreation. It's the same theory for libraries.
JV: Have you heard of any other similar attempts elsewhere in Oregon to do something like this and to opt out of a library tax district? I know you can opt in.
BN: There have been a few instances, although none of them bear similarity to this particular case. So district governments can have boundaries that maybe don't necessarily follow a county or a city's boundaries. And so there have been some instances where there was land that was annexed into a city government that then meant it would no longer be part of the library district because the city is not a part of the library district's boundaries. The only other instance we could find was an instance in Lane County in the mid 2000s where land that was zoned as uninhabitable forest land was petitioned to be removed from the library district. The library district in question did not oppose it. Literally, the zoning does not allow people to live on the property. So it did make sense in that instance. We have not found any instances of properties that have or can have people live on them being withdrawn from library districts, aside from the case in Josephine County. The way that the statute is written, it specifically talks about feasibility to receive service. That standard makes a lot of sense if you're talking about a type of district that offers a property-based service like, say, can a fire district get to you, can a water district provide or an irrigation district provide water to your property? It doesn't make as much sense if you're talking about something like a library district or a parks and recreation district or a hospital district where it's more a type of service that people go to or take advantage of rather than a service that's being delivered to a property.
JV: The letters that were sent talked about this a little bit, but what concerns do you have about the precedent that this situation could set for the future?
BN: The big precedent that we are worried about is, as I noted earlier, this is the single most stable way to fund a library district in Oregon. Libraries are being attacked on various fronts right now, a lot of it related to the materials they collect, materials that people object to. And this is another tool that people can use to really try to defund libraries if they don't agree with what they're doing. But libraries are a really essential government service. And it's really important that they have stable funding, just like it's important that the fire department and the police department have stable funding. The people in this particular situation, there's no stated reason that is why they're withdrawing the property. What we're worried about is that there can be other instances where people are objecting to materials in the library and the library maybe doesn't choose to remove them, and so then this becomes, 'Well, okay, then I'm gonna opt my property out of the library district.' The other worry is that this tool is not limited to libraries. This can be used for a number of different types of districts. I already mentioned fire and water and parks and recreation districts. That could have a real ripple effect.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
