We’ve already seen a taste of what’s to come. Last year, Ohio Republicans changed how libraries across the state were funded. Once the crown jewel of library funding models in the country, the state-level funding model was abandoned by Republicans. Instead, they moved to a local-level funding model for public libraries. An immediate result of this change was a frantic race to get library levies on local ballots so that libraries wouldn’t need to shutter their doors. Those levies ask voters whether they should pay for their library’s services and at what rate; in nearly every levy initiative since the state’s budgeting change, voters have said yes to paying more to fund these local services. In essence, state-elected Republicans in Ohio have said that this is a local-level issue and not something they’re involved in; meanwhile, those same Republicans wanted to include in their library overhaul bill a requirement that any and all LGBTQ+ books be completely out of sight of minors in those same public libraries. It’s local control when it comes to funding a public good; it’s Republican control when it comes to queer people existing in the world.
A levy is a property tax. In Ohio, while the Republicans have not yet shoved through a bill to cut property taxes–something they’ve been itching to do!–the reality is that these tax cuts are nothing at all. They’re a literal passing of the buck, as local governments would need to impose those same taxes on their residents to provide municipal services. But state legislators get to boast about progress and point to greedy local governments trying to steal back that hard-earned tax cut.
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Meanwhile, the services that local governments provide are at best at the same level as before; in reality, they’d likely be worse off because they are entirely dependent on the community’s financial status. Poorer communities would have poorer services; wealthy communities would likely not even need to worry because, again, they can simply pay for the private-level services if they don’t pass the levy. If you’re thinking this sounds a heck of a lot like what plays out with the ongoing debates over school voucher schemes, where public school funding is cut, and vouchers can be used to create “school choice,” you’re not wrong. It’s the same thing. In many cases, the states pushing for tax changes also have such voucher programs, further underscoring how this is about directly harming public goods.
The number of states seeking to change taxes varies by source. Realtor.com counted 13 over the last two years, while other sites have listed seven or eight. The article from Realtor.com gets to the heart of the problem pretty succinctly:
While some states are still pushing aggressive plans to phase out or eliminate property taxes, others have run into roadblocks, exposing the core problem at the center of the movement: It is much easier topromise homeowners relief than to replace the billions of dollars property taxes fundfor schools, emergency services, and local governments.
Among the states where the push has been loudest–and, as you’d imagine, where the fight to draw attention to the problem is also loud–are Florida, Indiana, Iowa, and Wyoming. Again, they’re not the only ones, but they’re where strong work is being done to point out what’s at the heart of this movement.
Florida libraries have been speaking loudly about the reality of their futures if the state were to cut property taxes. West Florida Libraries believe they’ll lose four million in annual funding. In Fort Walton Beach, not only would there be a financial hit, but the local city manager believes that the library’s space can be made smaller with no problem (and hey, he knows a guy he can hire to do it, which is convenient). Libraries in Escambia County (already besieged both in the school and public library by book bans), Leon County, Orange County, and Volusia County have also spoken up about the impact of such cuts. In addition, the editorial board of the Miami Herald weighed in, emphasizing the pain that such tax cuts would cause libraries:
If property taxes are eliminated for people 65 and older — one idea of many being discussed — the library system could lose an estimated 20% of that funding, theMiami Herald reported.That’s a significant hit to a service many rely on daily.
Libraries matter. They’re more than places to borrow books or read periodicals. They’re a connection point. They also serve as polling locations during elections, host programming for the community and provide students with a quiet place to study.
Libraries offer diverse and important services: smartphone basics for seniors, writing clubs, homework help and tutoring, to name a few.
[…]
If property taxes are cut, the consequences will be more than just dollars and cents. They’ll be felt in neighborhoods where libraries are lifelines. Lawmakers need to think carefully about what they’re proposing. The tax cuts they promote today could result in cutbacks their constituents regret tomorrow.
That final line is especially well delivered. This isn’t about regrets that politicians will have. It’s about the regrets that their constituents will have. Floridians will vote on Amendment 3 in November.
In Indiana, the governor signed both income and property tax cuts into law last year, and they took effect this year. You can read the details here. What the Indiana legislation did in the 2026 session, though, was take the pain libraries were already going to feel with these cuts and make it even worse. While public libraries in the state can seek a levy to increase their funding locally, a new law limits what that levy ask can be. Libraries can only grow at less than half of other local government units. It also creates several other limitations and requirements that aren’t demanded of other local government units–just libraries. One of those is submitting their proposed budgets and tax levies to local fiscal bodies in September each year; no other local governmental body is required to do so.
This law was intended to harm libraries and the communities that love and use them. The impact isn’t yet known, but there’s probably plenty of good guessing as to how this will play out. Public libraries in Indiana are already on tremendously tight budgets. It’s only going to get worse.
Taking a bit from Florida’s plans and a bit from Indiana’s caps on local taxing authority, Iowa‘s new property tax cuts are already being talked about by libraries in the state. Recognizing the impact those cuts will have–as will the limits that local government bodies will have in seeking additional local taxes, a 2% cap that fails to even keep up with the inflation rate, let alone rising costs of healthcare, retirement, or goods–discussions are already underway in Des Moines about what this will look like. The city would face a 12 million dollar deficit, and solutions include severe cuts to the public library.
Seeing this from Iowa isn’t surprising, given how Governor Reynolds and other far-right politicians in the state have been attacking libraries nonstop since 2021. This legislative session alone, they floated numerous bills that would do everything from ban collaborative efforts between public schools and public libraries that get kids access to books, to removing privacy rights for young people in public libraries, to a law that would ban books deemed “harmful to minors” (by the very group of people actively harming minors by harboring traffickers and pedophiles within the government) from public libraries, and more. They failed to pass any, and it’s hard not to wonder where and how these property tax cuts will make it easier for politicians to justify passing them in future sessions.
Finally, there has been no shortage of speaking up and out about what the proposed tax cuts would do to libraries in Wyoming. Last year, the state imposed a 25% tax cut, which left local governments scrambling. How could they fill in the gaps? Now, state voters will weigh in on whether to cut property taxes by another 50% on November 3, 2026. The language on the bill emphasizes that this would be for “primary” residences (but the actual requirements to meet that definition will be easy for the wealthy to attain–and it’s worth noting that Wyoming is a place many of the ultra wealthy retain second or third residences).
So what would an additional 50% reduction in property taxes look like in Wyoming? Devastating.
The Carbon County Library System could shutter six of its seven libraries were cuts to happen. That’s a tremendous loss of service and access countywide. Last fall, several libraries spoke about the impact of the 25% cuts, with fear about what could come with another 50% cut.
A “yes” vote on this initiative would equate to almost $125 million in lost tax money statewide. That impacts libraries, as well as other municipal services people use every single day–and may be completely unaware of as something their taxes cover.
Whether you’re a library that’ll face swift changes in your already underwhelming budgets or you’re a library lover who believes in the promise and value of libraries, now more than ever, it’s essential to speak up and take action. Let people in your community and networks know what’s happening here. These tax cuts have harsh consequences that ultimately may end up costing taxpayers more money, not less. And that’s if the decimation of local government services, like libraries, isn’t gone before there’s time to rally behind them. The libraries close at 5 p.m. every evening, not because people aren’t using them; they’re closing at 5 p.m. every night because Republican lawmakers passed sweeping property tax cuts, which meant libraries had to cut staff, services, and hours.
For so long, people have touted that libraries are “free.” Sure, public libraries are free to use, but that rhetoric hasn’t helped people connect the dots between their tax money and publicly funded institutions. They’re beginning to see it in public schools thanks to voucher schemes, but there’s still a knowledge gap regarding public libraries. Remind the people in your life that libraries aren’t free. If you work in a library, consider where and how you can explain how your institution is funded–and how much you squeeze out of every single dollar of taxpayer money to make the library what it is.
Beyond informing people about what’s happening, use your voice and take it directly to decision-makers. In Wyoming and in Florida, that’ll be the ballot box this fall; in other states, that’s into your state-level congressional representatives. Remind them that their job is to serve you, not the other way around, and tax cuts would both harm you as a constituent and them, as you’ll ensure they don’t keep their jobs for another term.
Because so many institutions are speaking up about what these tax cuts would mean, there is a lot available to cite. Use this information in speaking and writing, and use it to spread the word. None of these cuts–whether they’re currently being floated in six states or 13–is a done deal. Indeed, you have the opportunity to use what happened in Ohio with their library funding model as an example, too. There was no budget reduction. It was simply a reallocation, and it put public goods in a position to do rapid advocacy and turn to its community for money … money that they had, in fact, already paid into the state’s budget and now, also needed to be collected locally.
Perhaps it’s a wildly cynical read or it’s a read fostered by having watched coordinated attacks on libraries and their services for as long as I have now, but it’s hard not to see this tax reduction strategy as a more sly way to dismantle public libraries by the same actors who’ve failed to pass the massively overreaching laws that would give them the power to determine what is–and is not–in public libraries over the last five years. There are other consequences, but because public libraries have, for the most part, remained mostly “okay” in the battle over whether or not queer people and/or people of color are allowed to be represented on shelves, far-right politicians see a new road in. If libraries have withering budgets, they have fewer people to make decisions. They have fewer bucks to spend. And they have fewer opportunities to use that budget in ways that reflect the needs and interests of their entire community. When those needs aren’t met and libraries have to whittle away their hours or shut their doors because of insufficient staffing, it’s taxpayers who not only feel the pain but also believe it’s the library’s fault. When it’s the library’s fault, then they shouldn’t have to continue funding it.
In other words, it’s not just a tax cut that these politicians see as benefiting their public perception. It’s also fulfillment of the very rhetoric they’ve been rehashing for years: “nobody uses libraries anymore, so why do we need them?” When the library can’t operate because it lacks the means to do so, no, people don’t use the library.
The right built their hydra, but we, the people, will continue to fight back. Our communities deserve so much better.
That’s local control.
Book Censorship News: July 31, 2026
- In really bad news, a federal appeals court has ruled that an Arkansas law against access to “obscene” materials in libraries can take effect. This law will create “adults only” areas in public libraries in the state, and because of how vague it is–again, no basis in reality or in actual definitions of “obscenity”–will lead to widespread censorship in libraries statewide. More, this is also a librarian criminalization bill: “Under Act 372, individuals who “furnish a harmful item to a minor” could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor. Those who violate the law could face jail time or fines of up to $10,000.”
- This was shared in last week’s news roundup, but this gets a share again for the headline alone: The Escambia school board [FL] deposed students. Now it says its own members shouldn’t be deposed.
- A children’s literature festival in the U.K. was criticized for not being diverse, and one of the founders thought this criticism should be deleted from social media posts.
- Daniel Boone Regional Library (MO) is being targeted by the state Attorney General for rumors from “residents” (the scare quotes are in the article!) mad there may have been a storytime with LGBTQ+ books held at the library. The Attorney General reminds the library and others that “providing minors with pornography is illegal, as is displaying sexually explicit material in a public location. She also wrote that libraries jeopardize their state funding if they hold events that are not designated for the proper age group.” Sigh.
- It’s worth knowing that the rainbow storytime noted above was well attended and went on as planned, despite the threats from the state.
- Republican legislators in Missouri are really salivating over this one library’s perfectly appropriate storytime and their opportunity to pretend this was “grooming.” Imagine if they focused on real issues in the state and not this manufactured panic.
- And some more from this story, since it’s been the big one this week. “But grooming is not even the standard in the criminal laws Hanaway cited in her letter to the library. The attorney general acknowledged the library’s right to determine its own programming and said she was prepared to act only if a program broke the law — pointing to statutes against giving minors pornography or displaying explicit sexual material in public. So reporters asked Hoskins and Brattin the obvious question: Did these two books meet that bar?Neither would say they did. Brattin argued the books carried “a message that’s meant to sexualize” and were intended to normalize a “lifestyle” and lower children’s defenses.” Republican politicians manufactured the panic and won’t even back down from accusations that they manufactured the panic. They have to always be victims.
- A Circuit Court Judge says that the Lawrence Public Library (KS) did not violate the First Amendment Rights of a man who was continually showing up to board meetings and holding obscene signs. He attempted to disrupt a drag storytime event, too, which did not happen but he included as part of his claim.
- If you’re in or near Chicago between August 6 and 23, check out this immersive art instillation at Theater Y Gallery about book bans.
- Demoted and Doxed: What Happened When a Texas Librarian Fought to Keep LGBTQ Books on Her Shelves
- Thanks to new provincial laws banning books, a banned books club in Alberta is blooming.
- A look at the way New Jersey prisons–as well as prisons nationwide–restrict access to books for those on the inside.
- Here are some of the popular books students won’t be able to access in Tennessee public schools, thanks to their book banning law.
- In Augusta County, Virginia, the library has already been told by the trustees that they can’t hold any Pride events for next year.
- A Florida professor was fired for teaching a short story and now she’s suing.
- The reality of America in 2026 is that Republican gubernatorial candidates in Wyoming are being asked about their stance related to public libraries. Public libraries are a priority issue.