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Library system may reduce tax burden
AUSTintown
At a time when some entities are seeking more tax money to make ends meet, a proposed five-year renewal levy for Mahoning County’s public library system actually will provide a tax break for residents.
The trustees of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County on Thursday will consider a property- tax levy for the Nov. 4 ballot that would generate $1.3 million a year less than the combined total the library now receives from two levies that expire this year.
The executive committee of the board of trustees of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County on Tuesday recommended the proposal to the full board, which will meet at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Poland Library to consider it.
The 15-branch library system now has a 1-mill levy that generates $3.6 million annually and a 1.8-mill levy that generates nearly $7 million a year, for a combined total of $10.6 million a year.
Those local levies provide about 51 percent of the library system’s funding, with most of the remainder coming from the state, said Susan Merriman, fiscal officer.
Library trustees approved a 2014 general-fund budget of $17.6 million. The general fund is the system’s main operating fund.
Under the proposal recommended by the committee and by Heidi Daniel, library director, the 1-mill levy would be allowed to expire and the voters would face a single five-year ballot issue that would renew the 1.8-mill levy and add 0.6 mill to it to generate $9.3 million a year.
“With 50 percent of our revenue on the line, we must go back and ask to be put on the ballot,” Daniel told the committee.
The library system’s goals are minimal impact on the taxpayers and assurance of continued “quality public library service at the level that the community has come to expect,” she added.
“We’re going to gain a ton of credibility by saying we’re going to lower their taxes,” said James Meehan, a trustee and executive committee member, referring to his perception of voter reaction to the levy proposal.
The library system will be able to survive on less levy money because no new major construction efforts are planned after completion of its two major forthcoming projects — a new $5 million Canfield library and a $14 million renovation of the 103-year-old main library at Wick and Rayen avenues, which already are funded by the system’s savings, Daniel said.
Daniel also told the committee that the West Side Library Community Input Group made up of residents of the West Side of Youngstown voted 9-1 in favor of a proposal to move the West Side Library from its current Mahoning Avenue location to the warming house of the former ice rink at Mill Creek Park’s James L. Wick Jr. Recreation Area off McCollum Road.
That proposed library-park partnership also is on the full board’s Thursday meeting agenda.