Budget time is hard on town administrators, Select Board members, town boards, department heads, and residents. With the budget requests for Harvard exceeding the expected revenues by $1.2 million, we have hard choices to make about how to reduce our expenses this coming fiscal year. We recognize and appreciate the labor, both paid and unpaid, that goes into doing this important work.
When making hard choices about the library’s budget, the Harvard Public Library Trustees would like the community to learn more about how our library is funded.
The Harvard Public Library receives 2.8% of the town budget. It also receives state aid from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, which is appropriated by the Legislature. To be eligible for the state aid each year, our library has to meet the municipal appropriation requirement, or the MAR.
To meet the MAR, our town is required to appropriate an amount of at least the average of the last three years’ appropriations to the library, increased by 2.5%. If the library appropriation does not meet the MAR, the library could lose state certification. This sets off a series of undesirable consequences for our library and patrons. More on that in a bit.
First, let’s look at the numbers:
- $734,891: The amount the library requested for level service
- $701,450: The amount the library needs from the town budget to meet the MAR
- $672,923: The amount the library is allotted in the town’s proposed budget without an override
If the town budgets the library for $701,450, we’ll be able to meet the MAR. We’ll keep our state certification and all of the privileges we gain, including state aid. Meeting the MAR would still leave the Harvard Public Library with a $33,441 cut, but we will figure this out. Library Director Mary Wilson and the outstanding staff will make it work and continue to provide services for the town and greater community.
If the town approves the current proposed budget of $672,923, the library will not meet the MAR. We will face the possibility of losing certification. Libraries that are not certified are no longer eligible for state aid and some small but important grants.
Both the state aid and grants are part of the library’s operating budget. A full $61,968 cut to our level service funding request, in actuality, will grow to around $80,000 when you include the state aid we’ll most likely lose. This is a budget cut that will be felt by everyone who uses the library.
The state grants a limited number of waivers each year. A waiver allows a library to retain certification even if it doesn’t meet the MAR. For reference, four waivers were granted last year across the state. However, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners asks municipalities to meet certain criteria to get a waiver.
The first is proving financial hardship. While we are all challenged to and working hard to divvy up our town’s slices of pie, it is unlikely the state will find Harvard, with a median income about twice the state’s average, qualified compared to municipalities across the state.
The second criterion is to demonstrate that the reduction to the library budget is not disproportionate relative to other municipal departments. At the time of this writing, library cuts are comparatively larger than some other departments in town. This will also reduce the likelihood of being granted a waiver by the state to keep certification.
Falling short of the MAR: The impact
Libraries that lose certification lose access to the regional consortium. In Harvard’s case, that is the Central-Western Massachusetts consortium, also known as C/W MARS. This gives library patrons access to physical and digital materials in 150 other member libraries in the region. Losing certification means we lose interlibrary loans.
It could also mean Harvard residents lose access to the 150 member libraries even if physically at a different library. It is up to individual libraries to grant access to materials for patrons with a decertified home library. Historically, many member libraries have not granted this access.
Children’s, young adult, and adult book group programming would be affected by decertification. Book groups and Cookbook Club (in partnership with Arm in Arm) depend on accessing multiple copies of books for the many participants.
The library has a great partnership with the schools. Throughout the year, entire classes come to the library for research and literacy work. Without interlibrary loan, we will no longer be able to get 30 books for a class to use. We won’t be able to get 10 books. We’ll have what we have on the shelves and that’s it. If the materials you are looking for are checked out, they are checked out.
Interlibrary loans, access to other libraries, programming, school curriculum, access to state money, access to grants—these are all at risk and can all be secured.
Funding the library to meet the MAR is still cutting the budget from what we proposed for level-service funding. However, we can keep our state certification, state aid, grants from the state, and interlibrary loans. Everyone will still be able to use C/W MARS. The library can work with some cuts. We do not want to; no one does, but we’ll make it work.
We hope the town will choose to secure residents’ access to the materials and programming our library provides, along with access to 150 libraries in the region, regardless of what happens with an override.
Stacie Cassat Green is chair of the Harvard Public Library Board of Trustees.
