Save Salem Public Library in Oregon!
FEBRUARY 2025 UPDATE:
The City Council will meet on 2/10 at 6 pm in the Council Chambers at 555 Liberty St SE and will be discussing a levy going for $0.98/$1000 assessed value, $1.09/$1000 assessed value, or no levy at all. THIS LEVY IS THE LAST CHANCE TO SAVE THE LIBRARY, PARKS, AND CENTER 50+.You can sign up to comment day-of in-person. You can also provide live virtual testimony by signing up on 2/10 between 8 am and 4 pm by clicking here. You can also email [email protected] and [email protected]Background:
The public library for Salem, the capital city of Oregon, was fighting budget options in spring 2024 that included losing 8 FTE come July 1, 2024. These options primarily affected Spanish-speaking staff and targeted diverse programming.Thanks to then-Mayor Chris Hoy, a motion was put forth to use temporary funding from the Transient Occupancy Tax to save the library at current operations until June 30, 2025. This saved the 3 Librarians and 3 Library Assistants their jobs for an additional year. Unfortunately, since then 3 Librarians have resigned.Photo by @kelseydawn.art and used with permission