The Library Trustees brought their proposed fiscal 2010 budget to the Finance Committee last Wednesday, making a strong case for sustained funding in what will likely be a difficult year. The library’s total request of $498,429 is a 5.2 percent decrease from this year’s original $525,514 appropriation, but is higher than the $490,698 revised fiscal 2009 budget after recent cuts. Library Director Mary Wilson explained that to maintain its certification and receive state aid in any given year, the library must meet a Municipal Appropriation Requirement (MAR) calculated by taking the average of the municipal appropriations in the three prior fiscal years and adding 2.5 percent. For Harvard, the minimum fiscal 2010 MAR would be $498,429, she said.
The Finance Committee had asked departments to base their fiscal 2010 budgets on the reduced fiscal 2009 budgets they submitted in January after substantial reductions in state aid were announced. Had the library done that, Wilson said, the resulting library budget would fall short of the state certification requirement. But the library will still maintain the agreed-upon spending cuts, Wilson asserted—closing on Fridays and absorbing in its budget all health insurance and Medicare cost increases, as well as a 2 percent pay increase for employees. The budget will also absorb any increased energy costs between fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2010, which begins July 1.
In defending the proposed budget, Wilson pointed to significant increases in library use since the building opened two years ago. Between fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2008, circulation increased 16 percent, reference transactions went up 35 percent, and visits to the library went from 80,000 to 104,300, she said. At present, she added, 85 percent of residents over the age of 7 hold active library cards, and demand for library services is on the rise as the economy declines.
Finance Committee member Lori Granville challenged Wilson’s assertions about library certification requirements, saying that the library could apply for waivers that would allow a reduced MAR and would also permit the library to be open fewer than 40 hours a week and still maintain its certification. Wilson and Trust Chairman Pete Jackson conceded the truth of Granville’s remarks, but said they don’t want to take the risk of losing certification if the requested waivers were denied. If a library loses state certification, they said, it loses state aid, in-state interlibrary loan privileges, borrowing privileges at other libraries, and eligibility for certain grants. Asked if Harvard residents would actually be turned away at other libraries, Wilson replied that they could use other town libraries but would not be able to take out books or other materials. The Acton library, for example, has said it will not honor cards from decertified libraries, she said.
Granville pressed the trustees on this issue, arguing that the state Board of Library Commissioners wants to help libraries maintain certification and appears to be flexible about the requirements. Granville has researched library operations in other towns similar to Harvard, and observed that most are open fewer hours and spend much less than Harvard’s library does. Jackson responded that Harvard doesn’t have all the services and facilities that many other towns have, such as a community center or teen center, so the library acts as all those things. Standing as it does so close to the schools, it is the after-school destination of “80-some kids” every day, Jackson said, and has been since the day it opened. And throughout the day, townspeople of all ages come to the library to participate in various programs, do research, or just catch up on some reading, he said.
Finance Committee member Bob Thurston agreed that the town doesn’t offer many services, which means fewer places to look when budget cuts must be made. Pointing out that it’s the state and the economy, not the Finance Committee, that are responsible for this year’s spending cuts and for even steeper cuts expected in fiscal 2010, Thurston observed that substantial reductions can be made in only three places: the schools, the library, and public safety, to which one of his colleagues added the Department of Public Works. There are risks associated with cutting any of those things, Thurston said. But at this point in its review of departmental budgets, the committee is just “trying to decide what’s required and what we can afford,” said Chairman George McKenna.
The library survey
On Saturday morning, at the end of another Finance Committee meeting, Granville gave committee members a working draft of her survey results so they could review the data before meeting with the Library Trustees Wednesday. McKenna declined to release the draft to the public because he said the committee had not formally accepted it “as a public document.” Granville said she obtained the data from the state Board of Library Commissioners website for the purpose of educating herself and the committee about library operations in towns comparable to Harvard. She gathered data on surrounding towns and on other communities with similar characteristics, including Bolton, Boxborough, Groton, Shirley, West Boylston, Lancaster, and Carlisle.
Trust Chairman Jackson and Trustee Ginger Kendall attended Saturday’s meeting and afterward expressed their dismay that the Finance Committee had not taken them up on their earlier offer to help construct the survey. Jackson complained that the towns Granville used for comparison purposes are not really comparable to Harvard in various ways. In the case of Bolton, for instance, the library budget is much smaller than Harvard’s because the library is much smaller, Jackson said, but Bolton is building a library addition that will quadruple its size. As for the sharp increase Granville noted in the cost of running the library in the past several years, Kendall pointed out that the Finance Committee had predicted such an increase when the new library opened. “It’s no surprise,” she said.
The Finance Committee and Library trustees were to have discussed Granville’s survey Wednesday night, but on Tuesday McKenna and Granville met with Jackson, Kendall, and Wilson and they all agreed to table the discussion until they have a chance to collaborate on the presentation to make it a more complete package of information about library costs and services. “It was an extremely healthy discussion and I think we’re on a really good path,” Granville said after the meeting.
