Last week’s Election Day brought some remarkably good news for many public libraries across the country that sought operating millages and capital bonds for improvements. Seasoned advocates are well aware, however, that those victories were no reason for library boosters to rest on their laurels or stop reaching for the elusive brass ring of fiscal sustainability.
Boosters of a new facility for the Parmly Billings (Mont.) Library savored a particularly sweet victory November 8 when 57% of voters passed a $16-million capital bond. “It really did happen,” exulted Leslie Modrow, development director for the Parmly Billings Foundation, in the November 9 Billings Gazette. “I’m so thankful that the community understood the importance of this building.”
The record turnout of voters came a decade after the library endured a bitter defeat (and a low voter turnout) to fund the construction of a true library facility to replace the cramped 1955 warehouse it occupied (American Libraries, Mar. 2003, p. 40–42). What made the difference, Parmly Billings Library Director Bill Cochran told American Libraries, was a decade of strategic planning with city and county officials, advocacy training, and extensive public input. And it certainly didn’t hurt that in October 2010, an anonymous donor gave the library foundation $2 million; Cochran told AL the donor stipulated “that it be for a new building of architectural significance.” That nest egg, plus $3 million more raised privately, enabled architectural and engineering plans to be drawn up ahead of the election so voters could see what they were being asked to fund.
On the East Coast, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh celebrated the passage of a .25-mill property-tax hike that will ensure the library an additional $3 million per year. Supporters are hopeful that the sorely needed increase will stave off the doomsday scenario that CLP endured in fall 2009 when outraged Pittsburgh residents allied with state lawmakers to oppose the proposed closure of five branches, staff layoffs, and the reduction of service hours by 28%.
CLP board President Lou Testoni said in the November 9 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that trustees “can move forward with the confidence that we have a sustainable funding source that will enable us to have options on what we provide, when we provide it, and how we provide it to the community.” It was no coincidence that Testoni emphasized sustainability in his message; the word became intrinsic to the almost three-year quest for a viable method of closing CLP’s multimillion-dollar budget gap (PDF file).
Of course, the concept of fiscal sustainability is all too familiar to public libraries in Ohio, where threatened cuts to state aid particularly galvanized grassroots advocacy in 2009. The Ohio Library Council reported November 9 that 77% of the 17 levies on the previous day’s ballot passed, extending a lifeline to 12 libraries around the state (PDF file).
Next door in Michigan, the word “sustainability” is fraught with irony. Even though voters approved at least a dozen property-tax millages to maintain or upgrade services in their communities—in some cases, such as in Bloomfield Hills, winning support after making as many trips to the ballot box as Troy Public Library has made—libraries statewide face a threat more insidious than the recent downsizing of its state library and shared resources program under former Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The legislature will soon be considering a proposal by Gov. Rick Snyder to eliminate personal property taxes altogether.
The Michigan Library Association has already mounted a campaign to educate state lawmakers about the consequences of such an action: the loss of $1.2 billion annually to fund libraries, schools, community colleges, and other essential public services. Detroit Public Library alone (which narrowly averted closing four branches this fall despite an ongoing lack of funds) stands to lose $6.8 million annually (PDF file). In opposing Gov. Snyder’s plan, MLA joins a statewide coalition of police chiefs, firefighters, municipal and county officials, and school board members.
Interestingly, the “Replace, Don’t Erase” coalition is advocating for the legislature to seek an alternate tax-revenue stream rather than advocating to maintain the current tax structure. The strategy is quite different from the reality check Florida librarians tried to get across to lawmakers there even as a devastating series of property-tax rollbacks was implemented.