Snohomish County NewsThese boots are made for filling
Doug Ramsey Photo
Mukilteo fire captain Dan Harbeck works the ferry lane June 27 to collect donations for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Twenty-three off-duty firefighters and family members raised more than $8,000 during the three day “fill the boot” event. Eddy Lindenstein of MDA Snohomish County said last year, Washington state firefighters collected more than $600,000 for MDA. Lindenstein said money raised by the firefighters helps fund everything from wheelchairs and braces for children afflicted with muscular dystrophy to sponsoring MDA summer camps.
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Library district asks voters to help close budget gap
MARYSVILLE - The Sno-Isle Libraries district will be turning to voters this election to help with its $2.5 million shortfall, placing a levy increase on the November ballot. The district wants to up the levy from 31 cents to 40 cents per $1,000 assessed home value.
The increase would amount to a $27 increase. A homeowner of a $300,000 house would pay $120 a year.
The district also will need to cut down on purchasing materials, such as books and CDs, and delay a new computer catalog system for a year. Other cuts will take place in July at the Board of Trustees’ discretion.
Library hours, however, will not change, district spokeswoman Mary Kelly said last week.
“That would feel kind of funny” to ask voters for money while cutting hours, Kelly said.
No new staffing costs will be introduced in 2010, Kelly said. Salaries and benefits represent 65 percent of the library’s budget; materials represent 15 percent.
If voters approve the levy increase, the library district’s finances would be stable through 2014, Kelly said. The shortfall was created by flat lining property tax revenues combined with increased services costs.
“Ultimately, it came down to choice for the Board,” director Jonalyn Woolf-Ivory said in a press release. “The Trustees felt strongly that the community should have the opportunity to make the funding decision.”
Kelly does not know yet how much in materials the library would need to cut down on or what the other measures would be. The library district is preparing two budgets in case the levy fails.
“If the levy fails, we will be prepared to present a balanced budget to the board for approval in November,” Woolf-Ivory said.
The library has an operating budget of $33 million and keeps $5 million in a reserve fund.
If the 21-library district were to buy 35,000 fewer books and materials, it would save $643,000 each year. A cut of 60,000 fewer books and materials would save slightly more than $1 million.
This year it purchased $400,000 less in materials as a way to cope with the budget crunch.
The computer catalog system must be replaced in 2011 because the software license only lasts until then. It takes six months to make the changeover.
Increasing the levy to 40 cents a year was as low as the district could go while maintaining its budget, Kelly said. The library district is allowed to increase its levy up to 50 cents.
The library district went through a series of community forums last month, which resulted in mixed messages.
“We didn’t get clear direction from what we got,” Kelly said. “We hoped to get really strong feedback one way or the other, but it was mixed.”
The forums did tell the district to tighten its belt and not run the full 50-cent levy, Kelly said.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Kelly said of the additional cuts the board will need to decide later this month. The district serves residents in Snohomish and Island counties.
By MICHAEL WHITNEY