In normal times it would be surprising if a city's vote on a property tax increase to fund the library, parks, and senior center would be affected by tariffs imposed by the President on imports to the United States.
But these aren't normal times, thanks to our decidedly abnormal president, Donald Trump.
Even though Trump has put a 90-day pause for most countries on the high tariffs he imposed to allow time for negotiations, the overall U.S. tariff rate actually went up from his initial roll-out, because Trump increased the Chinese tariff to an eye-popping 145%, with no pause.
Here in Salem, the folks at City Hall have unveiled a budget for the next fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2025. The Salem Reporter summarized the budget in a recent story by Rachel Alexander.
Total city budget: $764 million
Total general fund budget: $196 million, up from $191 million last year
City jobs cut: 51 full-time, including 20 Salem Public Library employees and 15 parks employees. 36 full-time jobs and 3 part-time jobs are filled; the rest are vacant.
Library hours if budget is adopted: 20 hours per week at main branch, a reduction from 38 currently; West Salem branch closure
Fire and police department positions cut: Zero.
That's pretty ghastly. Cutting main library hours in about half. Closing the library's West Salem branch. Reducing classes and outreach at Center 50+. Eliminating 30% of parks maintenance and recreation staff.
To avoid these cuts, a Five-Year Local Option Levy, a.k.a. the Livability Levy, will be voted on in the May 20 special election.
A while back polling showed that the Livability Levy was opposed by a majority of voters. However, backers of the Livability Levy have done a great job of communicating the importance of passing this property tax hike -- which would cost the average Salem homeowner about $18 a month, or $220 a year.
As a senior who wants the Library, parks, and Center 50+ to live long and prosper, I'm concerned about the Livability Levy being negatively affected by a very steep drop in consumer sentiment/confidence nationally. A CNN story published today says:
Americans are rarely this pessimistic about the economy.
Consumer sentiment plunged 11% this month to a preliminary reading of 50.8, the University of Michigan said in its latest survey released Friday, the second-lowest reading on records going back to 1952. April’s reading was lower than anything seen during the Great Recession.
President Donald Trump’s volatile trade war, which threatens higher inflation, has significantly weighed on Americans’ moods these past few months. That malaise worsened leading up to Trump’s announcement last week of sweeping tariffs, according to the survey.
“This decline was, like the last month’s, pervasive and unanimous across age, income, education, geographic region and political affiliation,” Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director, said in a release.
“Sentiment has now lost more than 30% since December 2024 amid growing worries about trade war developments that have oscillated over the course of the year,” she added.
What's unclear is the extent to which a darkening national mood about the economy will impact spending patterns.
“Sometimes the surveys are very negative, but they keep spending,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week at an event near Washington, DC. “People spent right through the pandemic and they spent right through this time of higher inflation.”
Hopefully Salem voters will be motivated to spend some of their money on the Livability Levy. If there's an economic downturn, it sure seems like we'll need a functional public library, parks, and senior center even more than before. And if there isn't an economic downturn, the Livability Levy still makes great good sense.
It just would be shocking to have the Salem Public Library reduced to a pale shadow of its former self. When my wife and I moved to Salem in 1977 with our five-year-old daughter, the library was a shining jewel that helped make us happy with our new home. Let's keep that jewel something we're all proud of.
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