Committee approves recommending city exemption from Wood County library tax

The Finance, Budget and Personnel Committee on Sept. 16 voted to recommend that the City Council adopt Resolution 2025-28 to exempt Marshfield taxpayers from the Wood County library tax.

The recommendation came after Jill Porter, the city’s library director, told the committee the city may adopt the exemption “because the city appropriates more money to the library than the citizens would pay to Wood County for their library tax.” The committee moved and seconded the recommendation and approved it by voice vote.

Porter said the exemption is authorized by state statute when a municipality’s appropriation for library services equals or exceeds what residents would pay under the county tax. The committee did not identify a statute number in the meeting record; Porter said only that the authority exists “by statute.”

Committee members raised no questions during the presentation and approved sending the resolution recommendation on to the full council. The committee chair called for the vote, members responded “Aye,” and the chair declared the recommendation approved.

The council will consider Resolution 2025-28 at a future meeting; Porter's presentation and the committee’s recommendation will be part of the council packet for that meeting.

The committee also approved routine consent items at the same meeting — minutes of the Aug. 19 meeting, bills and payroll, the monthly position-control report and the personnel actions report — by voice vote before discussing the library exemption.

No additional conditions, roll-call tallies, or statutory citations beyond Porter’s reference to “statute” were recorded in the committee discussion.