It's the Fitchburg Public Library's Rookie Year and Already There's Talk of Budget Cuts

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Link to November 7 Connect Fitchburg article, "2011 operating budget to increase $3.5 million.  Library costs contribute nearly half".

Excerpt: With the city's tax levy proposed to increase by about 2 percent in 2011, the mayor is unhappy with the increase but says there is little the city can do.

"I do not like this budget at all," Mayor Jay Allen wrote in his letter introducing the budget. "Unfortunately, there are not many options."

Because the city will take over the operating cost of the library once the new building is complete, there were will be additional costs for the extra services at the library. The library, projected to cost about $1.78 million this year, makes up about half of the nearly $3.5 million increase.

At the city's public hearing regarding the 2011 budget on Oct. 12, several citizens spoke in favor of restoring $50,000 that Allen proposed to cut from the library's budget.

"This is not the year to implement cuts," library board member Mary Kay Zimbrick said. "We decided as a library board when we first stated that the most important thing we can do is be fiscally sound and be good stewards of the city's money and the taxpayer's tax dollars. We've already made substantial cuts."

The total library costs are proposed to increase from $129,000 in 2010 to about $1.8 million for 2011. However, Fitchburg residents no longer have to pay the county's library tax, saving taxpayers a total of about $778,000.

Related articles:
No solar panels for new library.  (10/4/2010)
Library construction pictorial progress report.  (9/13/2010)
Bids come in under budget.  (7/2/2010)
Library groundbreaking.  (4/13/2010)
City set for library groundbreaking.  (4/11/2010)
Library receives anonymous $1 million matching donation.  (2/3/2010)
Geothermal heating encouraged for new Fitchburg library.  (1/12/2010)