Samantha Smart wrote:
* The City of Minneapolis should assess a dedicated property tax levy that
would go specifically for Libraries...
If you will, for a moment, consider that 74% of the voters passed a $140
mil. library referendum at the last election, the first installment of
which is due on our taxes in 06, you will ask the question, "Just how
much will the traffic bear?" The MPL already taxes us through the mil
rate every year to the tune of a few shekels, but next year the
referendum is going to whomp us but good..
You will also have to consider that going into requesting a referendum,
the MPL had been ignoring a big chunk of shortfall in the budget until
the city's CLIC Committee called them on it and wanted to know how MPL
planned to fix that. No answer. (Or rather, the answer was hiring a
different director.)
I believe that the residents of Minneapolis are also willing to support our libraries and will do so willingly.
We voters have amply proven that, but with the gov. shoving property
taxes from business to residential, a legislature in a semi-permanent
deadlock, economic pressures just mean as dirt, it is unfair to ask us
to bear a larger tax burden than we already do.
*The City of Minneapolis should also assess Library Building Impact Fees, a property tax
assessment placed on new building and significant renovations (i.e, conversions to
"lofts" and condos).
This will go over like an 8-month pregnant pole vaulter.
which in the case of libraries, include acquistion of new materials.
The acquisitions budget is not a capitol expenditure, even though,
intuitively for a library, one might put it there. It is also the
easiest area of the MPL budget to raid because it is not a "fixed"
cost. One of the most recent raids was to hire four new employees to
raise money. Over the past 15-20 years, it's been raided so often that
it's a mere shadow of it's former self--no, worse than that, it's a
joke. As a VISTA Volunteer at Hosmer, along with Hosmer Librarian Roy
Woodstrum, I was the only library type who raised substantial sums for
materials and programming in the 3 years prior to 2001. The MPL didn't
install a fundraising office through the Friends until after 2001.
Current projections through 2008 include absolutely NO increases in local grants ($20,000), State grants ($55,000) and Federal grants ($95,000). This level of grant funding is "small potatoes"
So far, from reports I hear, the MPL/Friends grants office is more or
less a bust. MPL is still learning how to do a grants function and they
are a far cry from deft at it to date. It's a big learning curve and,
try as they might, it still takes time to learn it, do it, integrate it
into the bureaucracy of the MPL, and become successful at it. Also, too
many in upper management at the library still suffer from Think inside
the box syndrome to move boldly in that direction. (This is a failing
libraries often fall into; I attribute it to the fact that most of their
job includes herding millions of pieces of information in an ongoing
attempt to keep things in the box in order.) It will be several years
before the grants office is a well-oiled machine.
*Minneapolis and the Library Board should be much more forceful and persuasive about lobbying the Governor and State Legislature to return previous levels of LGA funding.
Say Amen somebody.
In fact, this Board recently terminated the Community Participation Initiative
(CPI), a group of community library lovers and activists dedicated to creative
problem-solving on library matters, while this group could have been a core of
library advocates to lobby on our system's behalf.
Sad, isn't it, when you've got a tool to hand, but you don't know how to
use it.
Linking Library Activist Groups with neighborhood NRPs to meet funding needs
As a funding source, unless there is some positive movement in the legie
and elsewhere (includes moving RT out of office and most of the city
council with him), this source is pretty well tapped out.
Funding our Libraries on a continual and plentiful basis is CRUCIAL to our
city! My plan is diversified, workable, financially responsible and
politically intelligent!
There you have it. We wouldn't want to be politically intelligent
towards the far horizon. Also, no matter that a few bibliophiles
understand how crucial libraries are to society, it's the politicians
and soldiers who burn down the libraries. Usta was they did it by
setting a fire. Now they just neglect it because libraries aren't a
"sexy" issue and because you can always squeeze a few bucks out of
library budgets for education, the other area funded through the same
committee of the legislature.
WizardMarks, Central
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