Indianapolis–Marion County Public Library Director Edward Szynaka and board President Mary Lou Rothe announced December 15 that IMCPL is voluntarily lowering its operations millage after having realized a savings of more than $1 million by utilizing printer and debit cards ($400,000), changing sick-leave policies ($300,000), lowering telecommunications costs ($162,000), and enacting other cost-cutting mechanisms.
A fiscal conservative's dream come true, Szynaka and Rothe emphasized that despite the drop (from the 1997 level of .3013 per $100 of assessed property valuation to the 1998 level of .2972), the operating budget will actually increase 1.5% in 1998. With library visits up 17% and circulation rising 5% this year, "This demonstrates a double bang for the buck," Rothe remarked in a prepared statement.
Posted December 29, 1997.