Why Should Delaware Care?
Independent libraries in Sussex County often act as hubs for community resources that reach far beyond checking out books. But those same libraries also are consistently strapped for cash as their state and county funding split comes up short. As county leaders waffle on whether to help increase the libraries’ coffers, library directors work to showcase why they need the boost.
From winter coat drives to free-to-use printers, tax season help, and their most fundamental service — providing books — Sussex County’s 11 independent libraries wear many different hats within their respective communities.
But a funding structure that almost always leaves large gaps in the independent libraries’ annual budgets — deficits of anywhere from 13% to 52% — has forced library employees to spend hours away from those programming responsibilities to apply for grants, make donation pleas to community members and search for other funding sources.
Bridgeville Public Library Director Karen Johnson-Kemp, for example, said she spends hundreds of hours a year applying to grants and trying to fundraise to close a $25,000 budget gap.
“If I were able to have that [time] back, I could focus on more administrative issues that are needed to keep the library moving forward in a more positive fashion,” Johnson-Kemp said.
Independent library leaders like Johnson-Kemp are lobbying Sussex County leaders this spring to increase the county’s library tax rate — its share of the funding structure. If they are successful, the new rate would translate to about $18 annually for the average property owner. It also would represent the first rate increase in 20 years.
However, some Sussex County Council members said they are reluctant to raise taxes this year, citing resident blowback from the property tax increases spurred by last year’s property reassessment and budget requests by other departments.
Sussex County also has three county-run libraries — Milton, Greenwood and South Coastal — which are fully funded by the county government.
“I think the libraries do great things,” County Councilman Steve McCarron said. “I don’t want to dismiss it. I just don’t know if this is the most opportune time for that.”
A number of library directors, though, said they were skeptical that county leaders genuinely understand everything independent libraries provide to their communities, and how they work with so little funding.
The state aims to fund about 15% of independent libraries’ expenses, and counties are meant to provide the rest. In practice, however, Sussex County only chooses to finance a portion of the independent libraries’ remaining budget, leaving the libraries to search for tens of thousands of dollars annually.
Raising the library tax rate, directors said, would go a long way in easing funding concerns and focusing more on providing services to their communities.
But experts also say this friction between independent libraries and the county is representative of a broader culture in the state’s southernmost county focused on keeping taxes low, which has left the libraries in financial distress as a result.
“There has been, proudly so, a fiscally conservative attitude toward government spending and a proudness about not raising taxes on an annual basis for a long time,” Troy Mix, director of the Institute for Public Administration at the University of Delaware, said of Sussex County.
The libraries’ ask
Library directors say they have sporadically raised the issue of their funding challenges to county leaders for more than a decade. This current campaign is the first time they have made a specific funding increase request to the county, though. It also has more organized, forward momentum, they said.
Some of that momentum has come from Candace Vessella, a former Washington, D.C. lobbyist and current president of the friends group at the Lewes Public Library, who has made the tax rate increase her focus since last fall.
The independent library coalition proposes raising the tax rate from $0.0023 per $100 of assessed property value to $0.0046 per $100. This would mean the average county property owner’s library tax would increase from the $4 to $23 range to the $9 to $46 range, annually, Vessella said.
The tax increase would provide about $2.5 million in additional funding to the libraries, Vessella estimated. Combined with state dollars, that would cover about 90% of the libraries’ operating costs, she said.
County leaders have responded to the funding increase campaign by arguing that county funding for libraries has gradually increased, despite the rate staying the same, as the ongoing population boom in southern Delaware has expanded Sussex’s property tax base, Vessella said.
Sussex County Libraries Director Rachel Lynch and Sussex County Administrator Todd Lawson declined Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment about the library tax rate.
Lawson told WBOC in mid-February, however, that the county’s contribution to independent library funding increased by 54% from 2009 to 2025 – from $1.93 million to $2.976 million.
But libraries have expanded in size to serve more visitors due to the population spike, far exceeding the funding growth referenced by the county, Vessella said.
Selbyville Public Library Director Kelly Kline said her library grew from a 5,600-square-foot building to nearly 12,700 square feet and also has seen a spike in visitors due to population growth.
Without the tax rate increase, Kline said she expects her library will have to dip into their reserves by about $60,000 for the 2027 fiscal year.
Johnson-Kemp, the Bridgeville director, similarly said her library will need to come up with an additional 15% in funding this fiscal year. Success in meeting that goal, she said, will largely depend on the weather during Bridgeville’s popular Apple Scrapple Festival in October, which is the library’s primary fundraiser each year.
Library users react
Visitors at independent Sussex County libraries told Spotlight Delaware said they appreciate the role libraries serve in their community, and they would not feel a major burden from the tax rate increase.
Bridgeville resident David Owen said he comes to the Bridgeville Public Library every week to check out books because the closest book store is all the way on the other side of the county in Rehoboth Beach.
Owen said he looked at his property tax bill and saw that he pays very little for his library tax currently, so he wouldn’t miss a little bit more money going to the library.
“I don’t mind paying a couple dollars more a month for what they do and what they give back to the community,” he said.
Another Bridgeville resident, Rob Costello, volunteers each week at the library during the spring to help people with their taxes. Costello said he supports the tax rate increase because of how much he has seen the library do for his small western Sussex community.
“A library is more than just books and stuff. It’s really a focal point in the community,” he said.
As part of their push for more funding, independent libraries asked visitors to share those sentiments with Sussex County Council members through a postcard writing campaign.
A community hub
While the eastern Sussex County beach towns have been built up with more infrastructure over time, libraries are one of the only meeting places in central and western Sussex county, residents say.
When asked what her library provides in addition to books, Johnson-Kemp, the Bridgeville director, had a question of her own:
“What don’t we do?”
Some supplementary services in Bridgeville include free yoga and workout classes for people who can’t afford a gym membership; a “small business hub” with printing, copying and faxing services; a summer reading program; free activities for families; and housing one of the only meeting spots in town that can fit more than 50 people, Johnson-Kemp said.
Rachel Lawson, who took over as director of the Seaford District Library last fall, spoke similarly about her goal of providing a hub of community resources.
This could be as simple as offering a cool place for people to escape the summer heat or a warm meeting spot in the winter, Lawson said. But it also includes offering events as varied as adult craft sessions and free HIV testing.
“Nothing is too far out of the scope of what we will try for,” Lawson said.
Johnson-Kemp acknowledged the libraries’ appeal to the county might not succeed this year. But by raising the public’s awareness of the issue, she hopes it will set the libraries up for success in the future.
Other library directors agreed, saying making a concerted push for more county funding is necessary to put the independent libraries in a more sustainable financial position.
“We are just asking for an increase to help us get off the hamster wheel of constant fundraising or burning through our reserves,” Kline, the Selbyville director, said.
