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Libraries Facing Potential $4 Million Hit, Branch Closures If Property Tax Cuts Pass
April 21, 2026
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed for more than a year for a major overhaul of the Florida tax system, including letting voters decide on property taxes. If the proposal should move through the Legislature’s upcoming special session, and if voters choose to cut property taxes, it could have a far-reaching impact on the West Florida Libraries (WFPL) system with cutbacks that could include library branch closures.
State property tax cuts could cost the library system $4 million a year, Library Services Director Christal Bell-Rivera told the West Florida Libraries Board of Governance during a Tuesday afternoon meeting at the Century Branch Library.
“I tried to do a budget with (a cut of) $4 million; it’s not possible,” Bell-Rivera said. She said massive budget cuts would be needed.
“It would first start with a reduction of library operation hours, up to whatever the worst of the worst is,” she said. “My goal and agenda would be to ensure that we keep the most amount of locations open, and the most amount of people employed.”
But she acknowledged that branch cuts, or even closures, could become reality.
“I hope the public will make an educated decision,” she said of a potential property tax vote.
For now, Bell-Rivera said she’s looking at ways to save money now in case there are tax cuts approved, and hold onto as much of $8 million in library reserve funds as possible.
A planned library on Lillian Highway for Myrtle Grove is now on hold, the Library Services director said. It was going to cost $6.5 million of the library system’s $8 million reserve.
Five or six library book vending machines across the county that were being considered at over $100,000 each are also now off the table. Bell-Rivera said the WFPL might consider partnering with schools for much cheaper $7,000 machines, and might consider one of the more expensive vending machines as a stand-alone branch of sorts in a library-underserved community like Cantonment.
As for the pending potential property tax cut, she said it will be a “wait and see,” and begin planning, situation for the WFPL, as well as all county departments.
Pictured above: Library Services Director Christal Bell-Rivera during a WFPL Board of Governance meeting on Monday at the Century Library. Pictured first below: Board members Blaine Wall and Rachel Hendrix. Picture second below: Century Branch Manager Leigh Ann Helton and WFPL board member Joyce Hopson. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
28 Responses to “Libraries Facing Potential $4 Million Hit, Branch Closures If Property Tax Cuts Pass”
Forget that. I’d rather have a sales tax that almost everybody pays. Verses my personal property being taxed every year till I die or the world ends. Then my descendants pay on for the rest of their lives. Better yet. You want your pet projects funded. Then YOU fund it with your money. Stop putting your hands in MY wallet. Or more accurately, voting for someone else to steal it from me so you can proclaim your hands are clean.
It’s nice to cut taxes, but how do we keep the services that they are used for?
If the Governor cut the taxes all he’s going to do is increase the Sales Tax to 12% so that everyone will pay for the lost in revenue. “It’s very simple people”.
Leave the taxes as they are and investigate the Fraud.
@anon ……Say it louder. So those in the back can hear.
Not my problem. There I said it, and don’t care. All taxation is theft.
If we got rid of fraud in our government finances maybe the nice things could stay funded . Not anytime soon , Corruption is ruining the taxpayers quality of life .
These comments perfectly illustrate a society where reading and education are not respected or valued. I hope you all enjoy living in the hellscape of ignorance that you are doing your best to create.
Since libraries are not used anymore (according to the commenters here), I would like to suggest that since stop lights, stop signs, and speed limit signs are not followed and used by the public, government should end installing and maintaining them.
And there is the… I want what you have and worked for. Let’s punish the successful. And reward the lazy. Let’s rob Peter to pay Paul. We’ll lose Peter, but gain multigenerational Paul’s. “An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,” Proverbs 6:18. (Mischief refers to unlawful interference with someone else’s property, often involving damage or annoyance)
Why can’t they just lower property taxes. It so stupid to eliminate them completely.
There is a lot of ‘I got mine, so good luck to everyone else’ going on here in the comments.
To mnon: Our property taxes help fund schools. But I’m not interested in schools. They should use community fundraisers too fund them. You’re right. Sorry schools.
So libraries are a public resource available to all but funded by property owners. This is a great example of the inequities in taxation that the push to eliminate property taxes seeks to resolve.
It’s just a sign of the times. If a true study was done it would show the amount of visits to public libraries has gone down significantly due to WWW. Most people get all their reading materials offline. Even newspapers are becoming a thing of the past. And the great idea of stopping government from being over paid for less service is a wonderful idea. But once you open Pandora’s box you can’t ever close it. So everyone wants services yet we have no say in what’s truly needed or not. So the world continues to go round and round.
How about cutting budgets that will matter the least to the public? Reduce the salaries and benefits of elected officials. A library is much more than a building to check out books, they host numerous events that entertain and educate our children.
Get it from someone else. Once we pay for our property we shouldn’t keep leasing it from the state. If the community and the public want their library then how about the library start doing community fundraisers. I have never needed the library after high school and online resources, plus books being so cheap and easy to get now. Sorry library.
id rather be able to buy food and car insurance than fund a library
The legislature should keep this simple as far as cutting taxes. Simply double the homestead exemption and ask counties and cities to freeze spending. City and Counties never speak of cutting back or tightening budgets. Just like a county commish just give away over a thousand dollars of “discretionary spending” and claimed “it’s ok because we have always done this”. No it is not ok!
Get with the times., Libraries are not needed anymore. If they want meeting rooms then community centers would be a better term. But gone are the days of books being anything required for learning. Its ok to be stuck in the past , just dont force others that want to move on to PAY FOR IT>…
Taxed when we make, taxed when we spend it, taxed if we save it and charge a fee to use what the tax was created for. ‘Taxed to death’ as the adage goes. Gov. DeSantis is trying to help the common man that is paying the taxes. ‘If it’s home leave it alone.’ Give the common man something without being taxed.
You lost me Ms. Bell-Rivera——I’m for the tax cuts!
Just saying
I am all up for libraries and I love reading a good book but when you have paid for your house and OWN it we should NOT have to continue to pay over and over again!
“Massive Budget cuts” couldn’t be made if you didn’t have a super Massive Budget to begin with.
It’s not like you provide a service that everyone benefits from. At best 10%, yet so much money spent there.
Hopefully ECAT gets trimmed down also.
What is the money the libraries are getting now being spent on? I know salaries, but how much are the higher-ups being paid? Without information on all the costs the libraries are spending, we don’t know their financial status. This needs to be looked at further to see if there are cuts that can be made at the libraries.
I want to keep the libraries open, just want to know what is being spent at the libraries.
How many blacksmith shops does anyone pass on the way to a library? Even if funded, libraries don’t seem to interest people the way they used to, before computers, cell phones, etc.what is the reward for the investment?
As a property owner, and as someone who utilizes the library system, I am fine with my taxes as they are. If they truly want change they can look at better funding the library systems and ensure that they have a more stable source of funding that isn’t threatened the moment that the governor thinks he has a good plan. At the end of the day, cutting taxes and harming the library system isn’t the answer.
It says could not would. Cut property taxes.
I’m sorry but I can’t even tell you the last time I’ve been to a library. Most everything that I need to look up is through the computer these days. Do any of the school age kids go to a library, other than the ones in their schools. We also need to take a vote on the Children’s Trust that we all pay for. I’ve had to do some budgeting around our house too…..insurance, groceries etc.
Why should anyone be surprised that getting rid of a stream of revenue would have an impact on the things that revenue pays for?
We say we want all kinds of benefits, but someone else should pay for it. This doesn’t seem like it should be too complicated. I don’t mind my property taxes paying for infrastructure, schools, public services, etc. But, start making developers pay impact fees consistent with the impact of their development on the area. Stop paying so many at the top of local government, big-city salaries and retirement packages, for small town job performance. I digress.
Maybe there’s a solution for the funding of libraries or maybe there’s a fresh approach to making books and resources available to the public, that we’ve not seen before.
Maybe this is what progress looks like.
It is what it is.
Cut taxes. Cut budgets.