The Seattle Times editorial board clearly doesn't understand the consequences of its own actions:

A SEVEN-YEAR Seattle Library Levy is the wrong way to pay for an essential day-to-day service.

Free public libraries are an essential service. They are about reading, which is about education, personal achievement, and democracy. Because libraries are such good things, they should not be offered up to voters in politically constructed take-it-or-leave-it choices.

I couldn't agree more. Piecemeal dedicated taxes are the wrong way to pay for essential services. But, you know, too fucking late thanks to the selfish shortsightedness of the people and the politicians who voted to impose Initiative 747's arbitrary and absurd 1 percent cap on the annual growth in revenue from regular property tax levies. It was the Seattle Times after all that described as "staggering" the state Supreme Court's decision to toss out I-747 on mere constitutional grounds. "[I]t is the law the people of Washington wanted," the editors wrote in calling on legislators to reinstate the initiative's provisions.

And implicit in this voter and legislator approved law is the principle that if our elected officials feel they need more money to provide public services then they should be forced to go to the people and ask for their permission. It's stupid and disruptive and counter to every scholarly notion of sound and efficient taxation, but this is exactly what Tim Eyman repeatedly argued in pimping I-747, and exactly what he continues to argue today in support of all of his initiatives. He's not limiting taxes, Eyman insists. He's just giving voters the final say.

Well this is the final say that voters say they want, so don't blame the mayor and the council for not finding the money elsewhere. Had I-747 not been in place they would have had plenty of room under the city's statutory levy authority to fully fund the library. But slowly starved of revenue, not so much. The library was largely protected from further cuts during the last budget, but with another $40 million city budget deficit looming next year it won't be so lucky. And that says nothing of restoring services that were cut in previous budgets.

Seattle has one of the lowest property tax rates in the state, far lower than the national average. The general-fund-depleting I-747 is partially to thank/blame for this. Yet the editors bizarrely conclude:

Most times, people should vote for measures about libraries. But a levy for day-to-day operations is different. Saying no creates an opportunity to send a message to the City Council: You fund it — or not. Make your decision and explain yourself to the voters.

No, they've got it backwards. It is the people who have put us in this funding crisis by repeatedly demanding exacting control of government revenues. So it's times for voters to make their decision, and then explain themselves to their neighbors for the consequences they wrought.