Proposed Library Budget Causes Flap

A proposal to cut the New Port Richey Public Library’s budget prompted outcry from its supporters Tuesday night.

Officials are proposing to cut the popular city library’s annual budget from $939,663 to $744,370. The cuts include eliminating two part-time specialists and one part-time custodian from the department budget and reducing one full-time librarian position to a part-time job.

Last year's budget did include $163,975 in capital outlay costs for building improvements, data processing equipment and software, a figure that won't be included in the fiscal year 2013 budget.

The library budget was one of several proposed department spending plans the city council addressed Tuesday, but did not make decisions on, in a nearly

Faced with dire financial projections, city leaders have proposed a lean $16.5 million general fund budget.

Kelly Maki is vice chairwoman of the Friends of the New Port Richey Public Library, the nonprofit that fundraises for the facility, and was one of four people to pan the city’s spending plan.

“If you would prefer to have this city turn into an even bigger statistic of poor education, lower employment, high home vacancy rates, increased rental properties, less businesses, and potentially increased crime rates, then approve the budget as proposed,” she said, reading from a statement. “However, if you, like me, want to live in a community where education and literacy are important factors in creating a prosperous community, the proposed reduction in budget for the library is unacceptable."

City Councilman Bob Langford raised the concern that despite already having staffing cuts and reductions, “the library has gained use."

He asked how the loss of staff affects whether books are sorted and shelves are stocked and how the library is meeting the needs of users.

“It just seems to me that the library is getting more use than it used to,” he said, “and it’s probably due to the economy and the people no having computers of their own and not having the ability to buy books."

With the proposed cuts, “it’s going to be more difficult to even process materials to get them to the shelves,” said Susan Dillinger, the library's director.

The facility is the only library in Pasco County open on Monday, she said, and that she and the custodian have been called on to help people. The library averages between 10,000 and 12,000 visits a week and had 2,500 visitors one Monday.

“The problem is that a lot of government agencies have made cuts, and what they’ve done is told people to go the library, and we will help them,” she said.

Dillinger pointed out that people are looking to file unemployment and might need to do it online. Sometimes they don’t know how to use the computer and staff has to help. There are also a lot of people who use the computers for online instruction, she added.

Maki felt the size of the library's cut was inequitable with other departments.

"It is your (the City Council's) responsibility to act on our behalf, to do what is best for the whole city," she said. "This proposed budget is not the answer for providing the best overall health and wellness of this city. Therefore, I urge you to demand that city management recalculate this year’s budget, starting with the library."