Josephine County’s library lease dispute has returned to center stage, and Commissioner Ron Smith believes he has a “simple solution.” His idea: ask library supporters to pledge just $1 a month to cover the Josephine Community Library District’s lease payment to the County.
The math is simple enough. Josephine County has a little more than 27,000 library cardholders. If roughly half — about 13,500 residents — made the pledge, the library would raise around $13,500 a month, or $162,000 annually, enough to meet a rent obligation without raising taxes. Smith calls it a modest, citizen-driven answer to a problem that has dragged on for eight months. “Love isn’t just words,” Smith has said in public posts, “it’s action.”
On the surface, the proposal is hard to argue with. One dollar a month — or $12 a year — seems like a fair price to protect a resource that tens of thousands of people in the community rely upon. Smith further points out that the Josephine Community Library District (JCLD) already operates under a dedicated taxing district, which brings in more than $1.5 million annually, and that the district currently holds about $2 million in reserves. Compared to other tenants leasing county facilities for token “dollar-a-year” agreements, he argues, the library has the capacity to pay.
Under the terms Smith favors, the library would be responsible for all routine maintenance — inside and out — consistent with the County’s latest lease structure. Larger capital repairs would be addressed case by case, such as the current roof replacement project, where Smith has said the library would contribute $20,000 while the County would pay the balance.
The plan is seen by some as a way to sidestep political gridlock. Rather than waiting on county leadership or fighting through another round of negotiations, commissioner Smith argues they can act directly, showing through small but collective contributions that the library has both value and committed backing.
But critics argue that Smith’s solution, while neat on paper, misses the bigger picture. They point to January, when the Board of County Commissioners abruptly terminated the existing lease agreement with the library. At the time, negotiations appeared to be heading toward resolution. Instead, a last-minute amendment spearheaded by Board Chair Andreas Blech changed the terms dramatically, derailing months of work and plunging the issue back into uncertainty. Eight months later, the situation remains unresolved, with the community left to debate fixes to a problem that many argue should never have existed.
Opponents of Smith’s proposal do not take issue with the affordability of a dollar; rather, they question why residents should be asked to pay twice. They highlight a long fiscal history: in 1997, a 33-cent library levy was absorbed into Josephine County’s general fund. In the 28 years since, that revenue has delivered tens of millions of dollars to county coffers and now accounts for more than half of the county’s property-tax base. From this perspective, asking residents to voluntarily pledge another dollar for rent feels like double taxation layered on top of decades of existing contributions.
Library supporters also stress that JCLD’s district revenue is earmarked for operations, staff, collections, and programming. Redirecting those funds toward rent or repairs, or leaning on patrons for extra pledges, they argue, is a workaround for a governance problem. In their view, the real solution is straightforward: the Board should finalize a fair lease, honor its own commitments, and take responsibility for a dispute caused by its own decisions.
In the end, Smith’s $1 plan may be reasonable, modest, and financially sound, but it does not resolve the core issue. This isn’t about whether Josephine County residents love their library — their support has been proven time and again at the ballot box and through daily use. The real question is why they should be asked to shoulder the burden again for a problem that began with the Board of Commissioners’ own actions.
A dollar may buy peace of mind, but it will not buy accountability. And that, residents say, is what’s really missing.