Newstrack: ‘3 by 5’ library tax idea is no more

Background

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett floated a 'trial balloon' last April suggesting raising property taxes by 3 cents per year for five years to provide more predictability and stability to the operations of the city's two public libraries.

The month before, leaders reduced hours and cut staffing at the libraries — downtown at 450 Fifth Ave, SE and the smaller, west side Ladd Library, 3750 Williams Blvd. SW — to offset a $460,000 shortfall. Corbett hoped to raise money to stave off more cuts in the years to come.

Some, including members of the City Council, opposed Corbett's plan, saying it conflicted with the will of voters, who in November 2015 had rejected a special library tax levy of 27 cents per $1,000 of taxable assessed property value.

Corbett's '3 by 5' tax plan could have been adopted by the City Council as part of its annual budgeting process, without a public referendum.

What's happened since

Planning for next year's city budget recently began. It is typically approved in March for the upcoming fiscal year, and Corbett said he is not planning to resurrect the library tax idea again.

Corbett laid blame at the feet of The Gazette Editorial Board, which opined the plan came too soon after voters rejected a tax increase for the library.

'I floated the idea for a long-term funding plan,' Corbett said. 'It didn't make it to first base. It was DOA. I haven't done any additional public discussion of the issue after the edit board closed the door and locked it.'

The question now is what the future holds for the library.

In March, the two libraries cut back from seven to six days a week, and started closing an hour earlier most days of the week. Meanwhile, three staff positions were eliminated.

Library Director Dara Schmidt said in April that without the tax increase Corbett proposed, the next budget would see additional cuts.

Last week, Schmidt proposed a fiscal 2018 budget of $5.9 million, which includes $5.2 million from public coffers. It is about $15,000 less than the previous budget. If approved, the library would maintain its level of service with no additional cuts to hours or staff, she said.

'We have been deeply examining our staffing models, our programming and all of the things we do to see how much we can do to think very differently about how we do our work and have internal cost savings and not need additional funding,' Schmidt said. 'We have been able to redeploy staffing hours and as positions come open, let some of those positions go.'

Still, the reduced hours led to some reductions in usage. Patronage in fiscal 2016, which included three months post-cuts, was 656,000 people, which was down from 697,000 people in fiscal 2015. Computer usage was down about 7,000 hours to 113,352 hours, and meeting room use was down to 118,191 people from 123,000 the year before.

'There's been some slight drops, but not significant when compared to the reduction of hours,' she said.

Corbett said the city is waiting to learn how much money is has to spend before making decisions about the fiscal 2018 budget.

'From a global budget standpoint, the city manager is going to recommend a balanced budget,' Corbett said. 'It's going to be a challenging budget and each department is going to have list of things they want approved by city manager and council, and that includes the library.'