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One director foresees trouble ahead with the ‘rainy day’ fund slashed.
Luzerne County public library directors reluctantly agreed Wednesday to use a $134,000 “rainy day” reserve to minimize an expected loss of state funding and lack of increase in county funding.
State funding for the county library system is expected to decline $113,830 in 2011, to a total $938,948.
The county will continue to provide $875,000 for the system, compared to the county’s 2009 allocation of $1.14 million.
Library directors expressed discomfort tapping the reserve they built by keeping expenses under budget for several years because only $10,000 will be left.
“We do realize that should we use this money, we are zeroed out,” Hazleton Area Public Library Executive Director James Reinmiller said during Wednesday’s meeting at the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre.
“If we don’t get an increase, we are in trouble next year.”
County Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla has said tight finances meant most allocations stayed flat in the county’s 2011 budget, though commissioners are “hopeful” they will be able to increase library funding in 2012.
The county’s 2012 budget will be the last drafted by the three sitting commissioners before the county’s new home rule government takes effect, Reinmiller noted. The 11 elected part-time county council members replacing commissioners will have the option to amend the 2012 budget after they take office next January.
“I’m just trying to be as optimistic as possible and hope that we can convince the commissioners,” Reinmiller said.
The county library system, which has 17 branches, has one remaining back-up reserve — a $304,000 automation fund for computerization.
“We know it’s terrible practice to borrow that for operating expenses, and we’d really like to avoid that if possible,” Reinmiller said. “We’re going to have automation needs down the road.”
Sara Hansen, system administrator and also director of the Osterhout, said the computerization of library collections is the “number one service” for library customers, allowing them to search available books throughout the system.
Automation is also the biggest single expense in the system’s budget — $171,000, she said.
Allocations to libraries in the system will total a combined $802,600 this year, a reduction of about $4,600. The reduction would have exceeded $100,000 if the reserve hadn’t been utilized.