Murray library seeking tax boost

MURRAY — The city library is asking residents here to halt a five-year financial decline with a property tax increase.

Increasing expenses and stagnant revenues have forced the library's board of directors to put a property tax increase to a City Council vote Tuesday.

The property tax hike would be the city's first in 20 years and would increase the library's $1.2 million annual budget by $390,000.

It would also tack on $7.42 to the property tax of a $100,000 home. Businesses would bear the brunt of the burden, paying close to $13.50 more on a $100,000 business.

Dan Barr, director of the library, said the board has already exhausted alternative funding options such as federal grants and the library's reserve fund. The library received $73,000 in federal money this year to revamp its computer hardware and received another $7,500 to beef up its Spanish-language collection.

But Barr said those grants are not covering the daily operations. Morris Haggerty, president of the library board of directors, said the library has survived with reserve funds the past four years. Those reserves are nearly depleted; all but $80,000 of the $700,000 reserve has been used.

In the past three years, expenses for the have increased by 9 percent. Revenue has increased by only 1.5 percent.

If the City Council does not approve the tax increase, Barr said the library would consider closing earlier or not opening on certain days.

"We're getting to the point where we have to make a decision. If we don't get funding, we're going to have to reduce services," Barr said.

The library has already decreased spending on new books over the past three years, reducing the percentage of the budget spent on books from 17 percent to 11 percent.

"That's the wrong direction to go. Books are our business," Barr said. "There's still a great demand for books and we want to meet that demand."

Haggerty said the No. 1 priority for the library is using the tax revenue to beef up its best-sellers collection so that patrons do not have to be on a waiting list for the most popular books.

"Books are one of the few things you can cut back on and so they've become one of those discretionary items," Haggerty said. "But really, that's the library. That's the main force behind it."

Money will also go to fixing the 12-year-old library's leaking roof and new high-tech improvements. The library has recently started e-mailing patrons to notify them of overdue books and will soon be installing wireless internet.

"Technology has really made life easier, but there are costs associated with all that," Barr said.

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