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Budget committee approves Benton County Library Service District tax rate and 2025–27 budget
Summary
The Benton County Budget Committee approved a tax rate of 0.3947 per $1,000 of assessed value and a proposed 2025–27 budget of $7,711,565 for the Library Service District; presenters said the district collects taxes that are transferred to the City of Corvallis to run library services.
The Benton County Budget Committee approved a property tax rate of 0.3947 per $1,000 of assessed value and the 2025–27 Library Service District proposed budget of $7,711,565 after a brief public hearing during the committee’s opening meeting.
Assistant County Administrator Rick Krager summarized the district’s role as a taxing entity that collects revenue and transfers those funds to the City of Corvallis, the primary service provider for library operations. Ashley Chavez, library director of the Corvallis–Benton County Public Library, described the library’s biennial budget (citywide) and how district dollars combine with the City of Corvallis local-option levy and other revenues to fund operations.
Chavez said the library’s upcoming biennial budget is approximately $21.4 million and that roughly 63% of that will be spent on personnel costs; system staffing is flat at about 47.625 full-time equivalents. She told the committee that the Monroe Community Library’s building ownership changed during the past year and that two district buildings are now owned by nonprofit partners who must raise funds for facility costs. Chavez also said the library and Benton County Health Department worked together last winter under a memorandum of understanding to provide warming, cooling and temporary overflow shelter support; during a two-week period the library served in intake and overnight overflow roles on six days, and “on most of those nights, over a hundred people were served in some way,” she said.
Chavez told the committee the library plans to hire an expert consultant to study district funding models and structures to address service inequities among rural branches where local nonprofits own facilities.
The committee opened and closed the required public hearing with no members of the public offering comment. The motions to set the levy rate and to adopt the 2025–27 budget were approved by voice vote.
Votes at the meeting did not include a roll-call tally in the minutes; a remote committee member, Chaz Jones, stated he voted “aye” from online attendance.
The committee’s approval makes the district levy and budget ready for implementation in tax year 2026 to support the 2025–27 biennium.
