Library Levy Fails By More Than 5,000 Votes

Results from the Kitsap Regional Library lid lift election came back with negative results for library advocates tonight.

Members of the KRL staff, board of trustees, friends of the library and other library supporters learned shortly after 8 p.m. that their lid lift request failed by a little more than 5,000 votes.

"I'm really pretty stunned because we had no formed opposition," said Library Director, Jill Jean. "I think what we're seeing is a real backlash."

Jean and other library staff, including board of trustee members, have spent the last four months canvassing Kitsap County to answer questions about the lid lift the library board felt was necessary to maintain existing services.

With the announcement tonight that the library will not see an increase in its levy rate, library personnel tried to wrap their minds around the fact they will have to cut their 2008 budget by 20 percent.

"What $2 million worth of services are we going to cut?" said Jackie Aitchison, a member on the board of trustees.

The next step will be for the board of trustees to decide if they want to go out for another lid lift election in either September or November this year. The third option would be to go out for no election, and find a way to provide the current services with the existing money, Aitchison said.

"Next year our rate will be 27 cents per $1,000 of assessed value and it will keep going down," she said. "We'e definitely got some hard work ahead of us."


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