EVERETT – Seeking to calm fears from residents of south Everett, Mayor Ray Stephanson said there’s only a “remote” chance that the Evergreen branch of the Everett Public Library will close if tax-cutting Initiative 864 gets on the November ballot and passes.
Stephanson talked about the Evergreen branch after the library board’s vice chairwoman, Marge Bissell, told the City Council Wednesday night that she feared further budget cuts would “turn the Everett library into a version of a discount chain store.” The Evergreen branch was one of her main concerns.
The mayor said after the council meeting that he has ruled out the closure of the Evergreen branch as part of $3.7 million in cuts that he is planning for the 2005 budget.
If Tim Eyman’s I-864 – which would cut most property taxes by 25 percent – passes, the city would have to cut another $8 million from its budget, and “everything will be on the table,” Stephanson said.
“If voters want to see their property taxes reduced by that much, the impact will be broad and throughout all departments,” he said.
But he doubted the city would have to resort to closing the branch library.
“The Evergreen branch provides a valuable service for our south Everett residents,” Stephanson said.
Nearly a third of the $3.5 million that Stephanson cut in March from the 2004 budget was from the library and parks budgets. The mayor said Wednesday that those two departments would probably not suffer as high a proportion of cuts in 2005.
“There is at least on my part as we look at 2005 a feeling that, with or without Eyman, our parks and libraries have already taken a hit in the 2004 budget,” he said. “We have to look beyond the parks and libraries in 2005.”
The library’s assistant director, Eileen Simmons, told the council that the $200,000 cut from the library’s 2004 budget hurt key services. Among other things, the library was forced to cut back on book purchases, scale back hours, and lay off one full-time and three part-time employees.
Reporter David Olson: 425-339-3452 or dolson@heraldnet.com.
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