Multnomah County voters have supported borrowing money to help improve their public libraries, according to unofficial election returns updated Wednesday.
Measure 26-211 will cost the typical homeowner about $10 a month and will back $387 million in bonds. County leaders plan to use the money to build a new flagship library in East Multnomah County as well as expand and renovate branches in other parts of the county.
In asking for the bond package, supporters pointed to the past and future. Multnomah County leaders noted that the state’s most populous county hasn’t made a significant investment in library buildings in three decades. And looking forward, demographers anticipate the county population growing by an additional 135,000 people by 2035.
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