Public Library Property Taxing Districts As a Strategy for Keeping Libraries Open

Save Our Libraries has proposed an alternative plan that would likely help the Douglas County (Oregon) Library System generate the revenue it needs to operate at an optimal capacity. This plan involves using citizens’ property taxes to finance the library (rather than relying on the county budget). This proposal would include a “special district tax” of $0.44 per every $1,000.00 of property values.[4] Oregon has a property tax cap of $10 per $1,000 of assessed property value; as a result, “any sum of taxes greater than $10 would compress all the taxes to fit under the cap,”[5] an issue that seems to warrant additional research.