Cleveland's public library system, an award-winning institution that includes 27 neighborhood libraries and a main library downtown, is a wonderful investment in a town that is striving to improve education.

Cleveland voters should not turn a deaf ear to its appeal for Issue 79, a 5.8 mill, five-year tax renewal that will not raise taxes. The library's current levy expires at the end of this year.

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The library depends on the levy for a whopping 48 percent of its budget, while the rest of its funding comes from Ohio's public library fund, which has steadily declined along with local property taxes, according to Nelson Devezin, the levy campaign manager.

But the library is wisely making do without asking voters for more money: The owner of a $50,000 home would still pay just $14.80 a month or about $170 a year, the same as now. The levy will raise roughly $22.2 million for the library in 2014, said Devezin in an email.

Without the levy, library officials fear they will have to make more cuts. Don't let that happen. Support this public jewel on the Nov. 5 ballot.