City of Lake Forest Park- Proposition No. 1

BALLOT TITLE
PROPOSITION NO. 1
Shall the City of Lake Forest Park be annexed to and be a part of the King County Rural Library District?

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT:
Currently, the King County Library District provides the City of Lake Forest Park with library services under the terms of a five year contract. The City is the only city in King County that receives its library services pursuant to contract. All other cities in the County have annexed to the Library District. City residents are being asked to decide whether they wish to continue with the current contract or annex the City to the King County Library District.
Annexation of the City to the Library District would not affect the quality of library services provided to residents of the City. Annexation to the Library District would mean that decisions regarding access to library services would no longer be made by the City Council during the City's budget process, which necessarily involves balancing competing demands upon City resources. Decisions regarding library services would be made by the King County Library District Board of Trustees; however, the City of Lake Forest Park Library Commission would remain active to provide local guidance on programming and services.
The City currently pays the Library District approximately $0.50 per $1,000.00 of assessed value in the City, or approximately $449,000.00 in 1997 and an estimated $455,000.00 in 1998. These payments are made from the City's current expense fund. If the City annexes to the Library District, the contract payment will be eliminated and instead an annual library levy of $0.50 per $1,000.00 assessed value will appear on the property owner's property tax statement as a separate line item.
Annexation to the Library District will have no affect upon the City's bonding capacity or its bond rating, and it will have no affect upon current bond payments.

STATEMENT FOR
A vote FOR Annexation to the King County Library District will give permanent stability to our Lake Forest Park Library. Presently, Lake Forest Park contracts with the King County Library District to provide our library services. The City pays $0.50/$1,000 of assessed property value from the city's general fund to the library district. If a majority of councilmembers vote to not renew this contract, all our library services would cease and no citizen of Lake Forest Park could check out anything from any King County library. Voting FOR annexation removes that possibility. If passed, library services will be paid for at $0.50/$1,000 assessed property value and will be shown on our property tax statement on a separate line instead of being included in the city levy. The City Council may choose to lower the city levy by all or part of the $0.50/$1,000 or could choose not to lower it. Our neighboring cities, Shoreline and Bothell have voted to annex to the Library District. Annexation to the King County Library District will insure the same level of services we have always received and enjoyed. Please vote FOR annexation to the King County Library District.

STATEMENT PREPARED BY: John Foy, Rick Stendera, Carolyn Armanini

STATEMENT AGAINST
No Statement Submitted.

NOTE: The Division of Records and Elections is not authorized to edit statements, nor is it responsible for their contents.