Ohio: Grandview Heights, Pataskala County Both Back Library Levies

From The Columbus Dispatch:

In final, unofficial results, Grandview [Heights] voters passed a five-year, 2.5-mill replacement levy with 79 percent approving it.
“Our residents have been incredibly positive and supportive,” said Mary Ludlum, library director.
The levy makes up about a quarter of the library’s budget. Without the funding, staff reductions and reduced operating hours, programs and materials were being considered. The library receives about a third less in state funding than it did 10 years ago.
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Fifty-seven percent of voters in the Southwest Licking School District approved a five-year, half-mill renewal levy for the Pataskala Public Library.
The millage will generate about $280,000 annually, or about a third of the library’s $780,000 budget, said library director Jeff Rothweiler. The levy will cost homeowners about $15 annually per $100,000 of property value. Voters rejected two earlier levy requests, both asking for additional millage.
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Statewide, 12 other libraries were on the ballot this election, said Linda Murray of the Ohio Library Council. That compares with more than 40 three years ago.

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Filed under: Funding, Libraries, News, Public Libraries