Libraries across Wyoming are at risk after the state Legislature earlier this year cut property taxes for single-family homeowners grappling with high rates in some parts of the state.
The money is a critical source of revenue for library systems and special districts and does not fund the operations of state government.
At a meeting of the Carbon County Library System board on Sept. 17, board members facing a 53% reduction to the system’s budget due to tax cuts weighed shuttering branches in small communities like Hanna and Medicine Bow. At the end of the day, the board opted to try and keep those branches open through the end of the year.
But in an effort to adjust to the $186,000 reduction, the board reduced the number of hours each branch will be open in Carbon County and closed the flagship Rawlins library on Fridays, with a few employee layoffs on the horizon.
“The hours that we're reducing is just the beginning, unfortunately,” said Adelaide Myers, a board member for the Carbon County Library System and an attorney in Saratoga. “We're going to be in a situation that's far worse next year.”
That’s because the effects of laws like SF 69, which cut single-family homeowners’ taxes by 25% for the first $1 million of their home's fair market value, will only continue to compound for library systems like Carbon County’s. Myers said the board anticipates its budget will continue to shrink from $164,000 this year to $130,000 next year.
So she and other residents have begun a “Save Our Libraries” postcard-writing campaign in an effort to “raise awareness about the source of the problem,” sending electeds on the interim Joint Revenue Committee lists of services they’d like their property taxes to pay for, like libraries.
“ There was definitely call for it among voters to reduce property taxes, but it's too many programs, too fast, and without any kind of backfill to counties,” she said. “The libraries aren't the only ones [hurt]. Our senior centers and museums, emergency services, law enforcement, all of these things are being impacted by this.”
The community in Carbon County has been doing its best to step up in light of the shortfall, Myers said, with groups like the Saratoga Friends of the Library and the Friends of the Encampment-Riverside Branch Library managing to raise about $139,000 of matching funds. But those monies, while helpful, come with their own issues, according to Myers.
“ We can't just say, ‘Okay, fork it over. We want you to basically balance out our budget for the year,’” she said. “We have to honor the intentions of the donors to make sure that the funds are used in those [specific] libraries, because that's what they were raised for.”
Meanwhile, Big Horn County recently closed two of its smaller branches, and cut benefits for employees and reduced hours at its larger ones, according to a report by the Greybull Standard. Myers said Fremont County is feeling the squeeze, too.
But Carbon County’s large size means it wouldn’t be as straightforward to close small library branches, as Big Horn County decided to do, since communities are spread so far apart.
“ We don't have the situation where people in Baggs can just bebop on up to Rawlins to go use the library,” Myers said. “Out on the opposite side of the county, we have Hanna and Medicine Bow and Elk Mountain, and those are small libraries, but they have pretty active use, especially in Elk Mountain.”
Myers said her system in Carbon County will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in early December, which she hopes will “ raise awareness of the library's existence and its contribution to these communities for so long.”
Lindsey Travis is the president of the Wyoming Library Association. She said library closures come at a big cost in a rural state like Wyoming.
“ I think that having a library in any community is very important,” said Travis. “It provides a place for people to gather, [for] people to get information. Some of our smaller communities, if they don't have a lot of other things but they have a library, it feels like they just have something. They have something that's their own. It's a good place for people of all ages to go and access computers, have programs, have something to do in those communities.”
County commissioners are making tough choices, Travis said, since it’s not up to them whether or not to provide library services for their residents.
“ The counties are required by the state to provide a bunch of services, so it's very difficult for county governments to face those cuts from the state level because they've already been required to provide things,” she said. “They're required to provide a library, they're required to provide sheriff services and several other things by the state. So when they're cutting those services without any direction from the state on what they should be, how they're supposed to backfill that, it makes it very difficult for our counties to figure out their funding.”
At the very least, for instance, all counties in Wyoming are required to fund a library in their county seat. According to Wyoming law, When county commissioners acquire the land to build a library, the statute reads commissioners must ensure the land “will be permanently furnished for the operation and use of a public library, [and the county] shall annually provide through property tax or otherwise for the establishment and maintenance of a public library at the county seat of the county.”
More property tax cuts could be coming, including a possible 50% reduction that voters will decide on the 2026 general election ballot.
Some lawmakers on the Joint Revenue Committee are also considering taking the cuts further by doing away with the state’s property tax system entirely via an amendment to the state constitution. Those legislators will vote on such a draft bill at their Nov. 18 and 19 meeting in Cheyenne.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
