EASTERN UPPER PENINSULA — In the upcoming primary election on Feb. 27, voters in Chippewa and Mackinac counties will be deciding on library funding for the whole region.

There are eight libraries in the Superior District Library system, including Bayliss Public Library, Brevort Township Community Library, DeTour Public Library, Drummond Island Library, Engadine Library, Les Cheneaux Library, Mollie R. Kahl Community Library and Pickford Community Library. The libraries cover a population of 42,000 people, and Bayliss in Sault Ste. Marie is the largest of the branches.

Any resident of Chippewa or Mackinac counties can apply for a library card free of cost through the Superior District Library system.

The district was formed in 2013 by combining the eight libraries together for the first time. When this happened, the Bayliss library funding millage was reduced from .8 to .5, which was the standard millage rate for all other libraries. The Headlee Rollback millage reduction reduced it further from .5 to .49. These tax millage programs make up for 85 percent of the funding for the libraries. The rest comes from state aid, donations and grants.

Over the past few years, library officials said funding for their services have decreased, while costs have continued to rise.

“Prices for everything have increased by eight to 11 percent each year. If you add that to the other budget decreases, it’s really been hard to have enough to buy books and pay people,” said district director Lisa Waskin.

At the same time that prices are increasing and the budget is decreasing, more and more people are using the library than ever before.

In the past year, the libraries have seen almost double the amount of both program attendance and items checked out. They have also started offering e-books, audio books, film screenings and more.

“We’re nearly at that tipping point where if we don’t get some sort of boost to the budget, we may have to start cutting things like hours and services,” said Waskin. “Which we do not want to do because people depend on libraries even more now.”

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In order to meet these needs, the library district has proposed a .50 increase for the millage.

“It just made sense to go for a small increase at this time so that we could keep up with inflation and then also be able to offer more hours, more services, more programs,” said Waskin.

The proposal reads:

“Shall the Superior District Library, counties of Chippewa and Mackinac, Michigan, be authorized to levy annually an amount not to exceed .9976 mill ($0.9976 for each $1,000 of taxable value), of which .4976 mill is a renewal of the millage rate that expires in 2024 and .50 mill is new additional millage, against all taxable property within the Superior District Library district for a period of 10 years, 2025 to 2034, inclusive, for the purpose of providing funds for all district library purposes authorized by law? The estimate of the revenue the Superior District Library will collect in the first year of levy (2025) if the millage is approved and levied by the library is approximately $1,680,000.”

At the current millage level, a household with a market value of $200,000 will pay $49.76 a year in taxes for the library. If the proposal passes, that same household will pay $99.76 a year instead.

The millage increase would bring funding levels back to where they were before inflation and budget cuts.

If this millage passes, library officials said there will be no proposed millage increases for at least the next 10 years.

— Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Proposed millage could affect Bayliss and other libraries in EUP