Minneapolis PL Faces Major Cuts

Budget wins in WA, FL, LA, but small MA library goes backward

By Lynn Blumenstein & Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 10/15/2006

The Minneapolis Public Library (MPL) has a new Central Library, funded via a referendum passed before severe cuts in local government aid decimated the library budget. Now the library board has begun public meetings asking for input on three alternate budget plans, all painful, before a decision in December.

Under one scenario, all 15 libraries would stay 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 version, the Central Library and four large community libraries would remain well supported and open six days a week and seven days a week, respectively, but the remaining libraries would be closed—and sold. As a third option, 12 libraries would remain open five days a week, with three libraries shut down, and spending on materials, technology, and building support would be much reduced.

There is another solution, however: a 3.6 percent library tax increase on top of the 16.7 percent increase already recommended by Mayor R.T. Rybak.

Thanks to rising property values, the Miami-Dade Public Library System, FL, has received another huge boost in revenues, as its newly approved $108 million budget for FY06/07 represents a 28 percent jump over the previous year's figure, itself an 18 percent increase. The new budget will fund additional hours, jobs, and a new systemwide security plan. Also, it will underpin the library's capital plan, which calls for ten new libraries plus eight storefront facilities. Six libraries have opened in the last five years.

Director Raymond Santiago was LJ's Librarian of the Year in 2003. The library has received budget increases for seven straight years.

The Fort Vancouver Library District, WA, finally won a bond vote that will allow it to replace two libraries in Vancouver. According to the Columbian, the $43 million bond issue got about 63 percent of the vote; 60 percent was required. In November 2005 and March 2004, bond measures of $44 million and $48 million, respectively, lost narrowly, in part owing to concerns over the library's unwillingness to filter adult access to the Internet. This time, as the Columbian noted, the filtering issue was off the table; last spring the library board voted to filter all Internet access (see News, LJ 3/15/06, p. 17).

Passage of the bond issue was needed for two important gifts, a $5 million anonymous donation and a $2 million land parcel.

Rolling the dice in OH

Facing a potentially frozen budget, the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County (PLCHC) must present three FY07 budget proposals to the county budget commission. Unlike many other large library systems in Ohio, the PLCHC budget isn't boosted by property taxes but depends mostly on the state's Library and Local Government Support Fund (LLGSF), a percentage of income tax proceeds.

For FY07, that amount could remain frozen at 2004-05 levels, be distributed according to current estimates of tax income, or be distributed at the 2007 level, ranging from $48.3 million to $58.8 million. The LLGSF rate won't be determined until mid-2007. The library system will go forward assuming the lowest estimate, with hours cut in 2001 still not restored. The difference will be resolved in July.

Millage up in St. Tammany

Challenged with an exploding population (Hurricane Katrina refugees) and limited facilities (a failed capital bond proposal and two libraries damaged/destroyed), the St. Tammany Parish Library (STPL), Covington, LA, received some good news in the form of an increased operating budget. The parish council approved a “roll forward” of the property tax assessment, from 5.24 to 6.33 mills. This could translate into an additional $850,000–$1 million annually, said STPL assistant director Donald Westmoreland. The parish is north of New Orleans, across Lake Pontchartrain.

A 1990 millage authorization set the tax rate at a maximum of 6.33 mills, but it was rolled back to 5.24 in 2004, as it netted the same amount as the previous higher rate.

MA voters send PL in reverse

North Easton, MA—population 23,000—won't be renovating and expanding its 1879 library building, as a mere 299 no votes at a September 7 town hall meeting proved enough to reject $1.8 million toward a $9.2 million project. Some $7.4 million was already secured—$3.1 million approved by the town ten years ago, $1.9 million from a state grant, and over $3 million raised by the library.

The extremely low voter turnout (104 voters supported the measure) contributed to the end of the project. Ames Free Library director Annalee Bundy said that instead of getting a spacious new library, the town must now return $1.2 million already spent in architectural fees and site work, and, of course, the $1.9 million to the state.