The Washington State Senate unanimously approved a bill on Wednesday, Jan. 24, to update the process for dissolving rural library districts.
State Sen. Sam Hunt, D- Olympia, who sponsored the bill at the request of Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, said the proposal addresses a glitch in state law that left Dayton voters without a say in the future of their library district.
The effort to dissolve the rural library district serving Columbia County and Dayton was started after failed attempts to remove books on topics about gender identity, sexual identity and anti-racism. The effort to put the issue on the ballot was blocked by a court official who said in her ruling that the state statute disenfranchised city voters served by the library district by allowing only county voters to petition and vote to shutter the library.
Senate Bill 5824 would give all district voters a say in the petition and dissolution process. It also increases the number of signatures needed to put the issue on the ballot from 10% of registered voters to 25%.
The initial bill proposed a 35% threshold — the same as what’s required to remove someone from office — but the proposal was amended. The Senate’s vote sends the proposal to the House.
“The Dayton library was on the verge of becoming the first library in the country to shut down because of a dispute over the books inside,” Hunt, a Democrat, said in a Wednesday news release. “All of those who could be affected by the closure should have a say in what happens to their shared resource.”
Dayton resident Elise Severe, chair of Neighbors United for Progress and one of the individuals who filed a lawsuit to block the measure from going to the ballot, testified in favor of the bill at committee hearing earlier this month.
“Groups are using (the existing) law as a loophole to close library districts in their organized efforts to ban books,” she said at the hearing. “This is an important political issue in our state, and we need to send a message with good governance that it will not be easy to tear down democracy.”
A similar proposal in the House, HB 2106, was still in committee as of Jan. 26.
