Taxpayers would get break under new Mahoning library proposal

POLAND

Mahoning County’s public library trustees have voted to place a single real-estate tax levy on the November ballot that would generate $1.3 million a year less than the two existing library levies combined.

Trustees of the 15-branch Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County took the action Thursday.

The system now has a 1-mill levy that generates $3.6 million annually and a 1.8-mill levy that produces nearly $7 million a year, for a combined total of $10.6 million a year.

Those local levies, which expire at the end of this year, provide 58 percent of the library system’s funding, with an additional 40 percent coming from the state and the remainder from fines, fees and donations.

Under the trustees’ plan, the 1-mill levy would be allowed to expire, and the voters would face a single five-year ballot issue that would renew the 1.8-mill levy and add 0.6-mill to it to generate $9.3 million a year.

The county commissioners still must approve the library levy before it can go on the ballot.

The library system should be able to survive on reduced levy income because no new major construction efforts are planned after completion of the new $5 million Canfield library and the $15 million renovation of main library, Heidi Daniel, library director, said.

In other business, the trustees authorized Daniel to engage in further discussions with Mill Creek MetroParks officials concerning the possible move of the West Side Library from its Mahoning Avenue location to the warming house of the former ice skating rink at Mill Creek Park’s James L. Wick Jr. Recreation Area.

Read more about the plans in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.