Clinton Residents Advocate for an Increase in the Library Appropriation from the Village Board

Clinton (WI) Public Library Revenue Sources

Sources:  Wisconsin Public Library Service Data (2003-2011)
                 2012 and 2013 municipal allocation from Gazette article
                 2012 county appropriation from 2012 Rock County budget (page 6 of Arrowhead Library System section

Clinton Public Library supporters hope for a budget increase. (Janesville Gazette, 11/17/2012)

Excerpt: At 7 p.m. Tuesday, group members plan to show up at the Clinton Village Board’s public hearing on the budget. They hope to encourage the board to increase funding for the library. 

“We know the village is facing tough choices, and we want to keep it positive,” said Darla Dernovsek, a library supporter from the town of Clinton. 

Here’s the problem as supporters see it: In 2003, the village contribution to the library was $85,235. The proposed village contribution for 2013 is $88,695. That’s an increase of 4 percent in 10 years. 

The 2013 contribution was the same as the 2012 contribution.

Letter to the Editor:  "Save Clinton Public Library".  (Beloit Daily News, 11/17/2012)

Excerpt:   At the Public Hearing on the 2013 Budget at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 20 you will likely hear village officials make statements like these: the budget is very tight, we just do not have the extra money to fund the library as requested. To be fair, the Village Board may be right--maybe it is impossible to fund our library as requested, but maybe, just maybe, the priorities of the members of the Village Board are not the same as those of the Village residents.

What kind of company is Clinton in?  (From the 2011 Wisconsin Public Library Service Data)

Whoa, talk about divergence!  We're all over the map within this narrow population cluster. Perhaps  instructive all on its own.

Someone will have to fill me in on the local library funding histories, the stories behind the statistics, of Redgranite, which received $20,320 in county funding in 2011, and Three Lakes (Demmer Memorial Library), which received $42,814 from its "home" county in 2011.)

For points of comparison, here are the 2003 municipal allocations:
Redgranite:     $13,846
Three Lake:  $150,837.