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Library funding down nearly 19 percent so far this year

Staff photo by Nick Daggy John Meibers passes the time by reading a magazine Tuesday, March 15 at the Hamilton Lane Library.

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By Ryan Gauthier, Staff Writer 8:57 PM Tuesday, March 16, 2010

HAMILTON — Libraries throughout Ohio saw their state revenue drop by a staggering 18.6 percent during the first quarter of 2010 over the same period last year, according to representatives with the Ohio Library Council.

Lynda Murray, director of government and legal services with the OLC, said she is not intimidated by the low collections so far this year. She fully anticipates higher revenues throughout the remainder of 2010, bringing actual numbers closer to the 7 percent drop state officials projected late last year.

“I think we’ll see collections get a little better as the year goes on,” Murray said. “It’s funny because seemingly random things can really throw off tax revenues. A bad snow storm means there hasn’t been sales tax for five days because nobody has been shopping.”

State officials projected a 7 percent drop for 2010 as recently as last December, according to Murray. Those projections have since been altered to between a 7 and 10 percent drop for the year.

That is on top of a 17.8 percent decrease from 2008 to 2009, which included a temporary reduction in state funding from 2.2 percent of the general fund to 1.97 percent.

Mary Pat Essman, director of the Lane Libraries, said that system underwent painful cuts last fall out of a “fiscal responsibility to get our expenses and income to match.”

“We knew this was coming,” Essman said. “We knew we’d have to gear down, cut our hours and cut some wonderful staff we had. We did it then, but it was also out of preparation for what would happen in 2010.”

The Lane Libraries are proposing a 0.75-mill property tax levy to help offset the substantial loss in funding. The millage is projected to bring in nearly $2.58 million annually for a five-year-period, costing the owner of a $100,000 home close to $23 every year.

The levy will appear on May 4 ballots in the Fairfield City School District, Hamilton City School District, New Miami Local School District, Ross Local School District, Talawanda City School District and portions of the Edgewood City School District.

If passed, Essman said she hopes the levy is able to help the Lane bridge the gap left by continued losses of state funding.

“We don’t know yet exactly what the gap is,” she said. “Until we move along a little further, we aren’t exactly sure of that number.”

John Kohlstrand, a spokesman with the Ohio Department of Taxation, said the public library fund has taken substantial hits recently as a result of state tax revenues dropping.

“When tax revenues are going well in Columbus, libraries will get more revenue,” Kohlstrand said. “When revenue is declining at the state level, it’ll shrink for libraries as well.”

With the state’s general fund taking an “unprecedented” 12 percent drop during fiscal year 2009, Kohlstrand said it was only natural libraries would absorb a portion of that.

“I went and looked back through more than 50 years of financial reports and could not find a decline anywhere near what has happened,” he said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or at rgauthier@coxohio.com.

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