A Historic Library Levy Lid Lift Will Appear on Ballots this November, Putting Timberland Regional Library’s Fate in Voters’ Hands
Whether the $0.35 levy increase passes this fall determines TRL’s survival — and that of the communities relying on it.
by Kylie McQuarrie
2026 has been a tumultuous year for the five-county Timberland Regional Library (TRL) system. With a new levy lift measure on the ballot, the library’s financial woes will continue until at least November, when voters could choose to solve those problems with a mild property tax bump.
But whether they’ll opt to trust Timberland after years of mismanagement (by Board members and library administrators alike) remains to be seen. If they want a lid lift to pass, the Board and admin have just under 100 days to rebuild public trust, connect with community members, support staff, and take responsibility for past actions.
How Did Timberland Reach This Point?
At the end of January, then-director Cheryl Heywood announced a massive budget shortfall that would require sweeping staff layoffs. After massive public pushback, Heywood resigned, and the layoffs were temporarily paused.
While 36 of the planned layoffs were eventually called off, more than a dozen employees still lost their jobs. Branch hours were rolled back at nearly all Timberland locations, and staff have been operating on a skeleton crew ever since.
After seven straight months of public, staff, and union demands for accountability and a clear path forward, the library’s Board of Trustees finally voted to place a levy lid lift on the November ballot. Voters will be asked to approve or deny a slight increase in property taxes. If the lift passes, the library will be able to restore dozens of jobs, add more than 100 hours per month to branches across the library district, and continue to expand the collection.
If it doesn’t, Timberland will more or less cease to function no later than the end of 2028. The library began the year with a $3.8M deficit. That deficit will increase drastically leading to lasting layoffs, closed branches, and — in a worst-case scenario — the potential dissolution of the entire five-county system. More than 200,000 people would lose access to social services, community gathering spaces, support groups, internet and printing services, games, activities, companionship, and (of course) books.
What Will a Levy Lid Lift Entail?
Right now, Timberland collects just over $0.22 per $1,000 of assessed property value. By law, it’s allowed to collect up to $0.50 — but Washington’s regressive tax code means the levy rate declines over time. Without frequent votes to restore rates, libraries can legally collect less and less money, leading to underfunded, overburdened library systems with exhausted, underpaid workers.
In an ideal world, Washington’s tax code will change at the state level. All regional libraries, not just Timberland, could benefit from stable funding. Until then, TRL will have to make do with the newly authorized ballot measure, which would increase the levy rate to $0.35. Homeowners’ property tax rates would hypothetically increase by $3.42 and $5.75 per month, or $41 to $69 per year.
Crucially, TRL has never had a successful levy lid lift — in part because it’s only tried once in the last quarter century. Its sole attempt, in 2009, failed by a margin of just 5%, which is notably small for a five-county region voting during the worst economic downturn in many voters’ memories.
There’s no reason to think a levy lift couldn’t pass during these similarly dire financial times . . . except for the fact that the TRL Board and administration have spent the last several years frantically trying to lose all credibility with the public. And with some notable exceptions, including interim director Andrea Heisel and Grays Harbor County trustee Dustin Loup, far too few of them have been willing to engage with the public and do the necessary work to restore the community trust that would make the levy lid lift a success.
Is There A Path Forward?
Time is undeniably short, but administrators and Board members still have time to get down in the dirt with the rest of us. They can choose to act as equal partners with the public in rebuilding the library, clearly detail what went wrong in the past, and prove that they’re committed to building the library back stronger. Or they can do what the old administration and several current Board members are committed to doing: retrench, blame the community, and talk down to staff and patrons — seemingly forgetting that they, not the public, lost $3.8M tax dollars and devastated the library system we were trusting them to protect.
The overwhelmingly positive public support for TRL already won back 36 jobs and demanded administrative change. We already know that communities in all five counties are desperate to save their libraries. This levy lid lift can succeed — but the battle will be much easier if the trustees can commit to working in concert with the public, not against it.
Kylie McQuarrie is the co-founder of the Patron Coalition for Local Libraries (PCLL), a grassroots organization committed to supporting a thriving, successful five-county library system. If you’d like to get involved in the TRL levy lift movement, sign up to volunteer with the PCLL and/or the adjacent PAC, which will support the levy lift effort this summer and fall.