When you vote "Yes" for your share of the property tax that provides the maintenance and operations of the King County Library System (KCLS), you are supporting the information and technological tools needed by everyone to support our democratic society.

Our libraries are at the heart of our communities. They are treasures to be enhanced and protected.

Proposition 1, which asks us to restore the KCLS property tax levy rate to 50 cents per $1000 of assessed value for collection in 2011, should have arrived in your mailbox, along with the "Local Voters' Pamphlet." It does require that you mail in your ballot so that it is postmarked on or before Feb. 9. (There are no ballot drop boxes in our immediate community.)

The cost to the homeowner of a hypothetical $400,000 home is about $32 per year.

As current president of the White Center Library Guild, I am witness to the great volume and services offered in that library. Every month, between 8,000 and 10,000 people walk in the door to use this library.

They are students, parents, children, teachers, community groups, and people who just want a "good read." This highly used library provides a meeting place for community groups and has outreach to low-income day care and elderly facilities.

There will be those who say, "Why now, in our deep recession should we vote for this tax?" For those who want to search for a job; for those who want information on how to keep their families healthy; for those wanting to obtain citizenship; for those who want to know how to raise a garden or chickens or make a quilt; for those who want to view a film or listen to some music or read the newspaper; for the student who is required to present their project in typed form...if these were the only ones who used the libraries, wouldn't it be enough for your support?

Here's to the great libraries we have in our community; the new Burien Library, the White Center Library, the Boulevard Park Library, the Greenbridge Library.

These are all part of the King County Library System, one of the finest systems in the United States. Let's keep it that way.

Rachael Levine
White Center