Will Newly Libraried Fitchburg Cause Ripples or Make Waves in the DCLS Reimbursement Formula?

Link to October 3 Wisconsin State Journal article, "Fitchburg library to cause ripples in county library system".

Excerpt: Fitchburg’s new library, slated to open next July, will cause ripples throughout the Dane County Library Service [DCLS] in ways complicated and concrete.

The complicated: Fitchburg residents no longer will pay their share of the county’s library tax, which at $778,000 in 2010 is by far the largest contributor among local governments to the county libraries’ operating budget. No one is quite sure how the revenue hit will affect the 26 public libraries* in the Dane County system who rely in part on the taxes, paid by property owners in cities, towns and villages without a library.

[*Strictly speaking...18 administrative units, 1 of them being the Madison Public Library, i.e., the central facility and 8 branches.]

“I think it will be challenging for some libraries as we figure things out and wait for the dust to settle,” said Julie Anne Chase, director of the county library service.

The concrete: Booker, the system’s library on wheels, will travel farther and add stops in far-flung county outposts possibly including Daleyville, Morrisonville and Mount Vernon, Chase said. The expanded routes will be possible because it will no longer serve Fitchburg, where it now spends 5½ hours of its 21-hour weekly total.