Nashville Libraries Lose Friday Service
But Gain 24% Budget Hike
Good news far outweighed the bad for Nashville Public Library June 22 when the city council approved a fiscally conservative budget that nonetheless made room for the library system to receive a $2.7-million budget increase. A 24% hike over last year’s $11-million budget, the funding reflects a need for $3.4 million more to run four new branches and a new central facility scheduled to open in the next 12 months. By closing all branches on Fridays, it also complies with a citywide mayoral order to cut spending 5%.
“We’re so happy,” Director Donna Nicely told American Libraries, about the unprecedented net gain, characterizing the FY 2001 negotiations as “trying to propose a budget where the left hand is cutting and the right hand is adding.” She credited Mayor Bill Purcell’s strong support for full library funding as instrumental in securing money to properly operate the expanded system, which is being built with $115 million raised from a seven-cent property-tax increase approved in 1997.
Posted July 3, 2000.
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