Minneapolis Public Library Prepares for Major Cuts—or a Tax Increase

-- Library Journal, 9/19/2006

The Minneapolis Public Library (MPL) has a spanking new Central Library, but that was funded via a referendum passed well before severe cuts in local government aid decimated the library budget. Now the library board has begun public meetings asking for inputs on three alternate plans, all painful. Under one scenario, all 15 libraries are open but most would go part time, with nine open three days a week and three open four days a week. Materials spending, technology, and building support would remain low. Under another scenario, the Central Library (six days a week) and four large community libraries (seven days a week) would remain open and well-supported, but then ten other libraries would be closed—and sold. In a third scenario, 12 libraries would remain open five days a week, with three libraries closed, and there'd be low spending on materials, technology,  and building support.

There's another solution, but taxpayers may resist. "If all 15 libraries were open six days a week, eight hours a day, and books, material, technology, services and staffing were fully funded, the Library would need an additional $6.5 million in 2007," according to the MPL web site, with a gap of more than $12 million in 2011. However, Mayor R.T. Rybak has already recommended a 16.7% tax increase, and a library tax increase would add another 3.6%. The Star-Tribune reported, "For the owner of a typical house valued at $225,000, Rybak's proposed increase amounts to an extra $165 per year in property taxes. The library board's proposal would add another $35 in annual taxes for that property owner."