New library levy appears likely

By Peter H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

AUSTINTOWN

Mahoning County’s voters likely will see a new library levy on the November 2010 ballot, and, if it doesn’t pass, they can expect further library-service cuts next year, the library director says.

Carlton Sears, Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County director, made that observation after a Tuesday meeting of the library’s board of trustees.

Sears said, however, he had not yet calculated how much new millage would be needed and how much that levy would have to generate in new annual revenue to maintain the existing level of library service.

The new money is needed to compensate for the decline in state funding for the library system since 2001, he said. The library system expects to receive $6,569,533 in state funds this year, compared with the $8,001,133 it got last year.

The library’s general-fund appropriations stand at $11,944,800 this year, compared with $12,135,400 last year. The general fund is its main operating fund and includes both state and local funds.

Most recently, the loss of state money forced the layoff of 26 library employees between July and September 2009 — the first layoffs in the local system’s 130-year history. The board also imposed in September a 15-percent cut in library hours across its branches. The 16-branch system has 170 employees.

To begin planning for levy campaign fund-raising activities, the board approved transferring $6,000 from the library foundation, which is the repository for private donations to the library, to the library levy campaign fund.

The voters clearly value their library system, Sears told the board. As evidence for that, he noted the library’s 1-mill, five-year property-tax-renewal levy passed last November with a 71.4 percent favorable vote. At 100 percent collections, that levy generates $3,622,000 annually.

Some 68 percent of Mahoning County voters scientifically polled last spring said they’d vote for a new library levy, Sears added.

However, he warned the board: “Despite those results, you can’t take anything for granted.”

Judge Mary DeGenaro of the 7th District Court of Appeals, a library board member, predicted that the library levy campaign would have to incur substantial costs to avoid having its message “drowned out” on this year’s November ballot, which will feature a multitude of state and federal candidate races.

George Farris, chief executive officer of Farris Marketing, the library’s advertising agency, agreed with the judge’s observation about the crowded ballot, but he said the library enjoys greater popularity than most politicians, and it benefits from an ongoing dialogue with library patrons.

The judge suggested having speakers from the library system discuss library services before church and community groups would be a cost-effective way of communicating the library system’s message.

Board member Clarence Smith suggested pro-levy postcards sent by library patrons to their friends and neighbors also would be an effective campaign strategy.