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Levy Failure Puts Akron in Funding FixAkron–Summit County (Ohio) Public Library officials were taken by surprise when voters rejected a 1.4-mill tax levy November 4 that would have supported library operations for the next six years. Now trustees must decide how to handle a funding shortfall of $5.1 million, or 20% of the library’s entire budget, for 2004 and possibly beyond.“I’m so bloody stunned,” board President James Switzer said in the November 8 Akron Beacon-Journal. “I didn’t expect this. We’re still going around saying, ‘What happened?’” At a special meeting held November 13, trustees agreed to put another measure on the March ballot. Even if it passes, the library must go a full year without an operating levy, although it could borrow against expected tax revenue to take the edge off inevitable cuts. Library Director Steven Hawk suggested that service hours could be reduced by 20% and materials purchases by 40%, but the board postponed making any specific recommendations—including possible staff layoffs—until its finance committee examines the 2004 budget in detail, the Beacon-Journal reported November 13. Only seven of 14 library levies passed in Ohio this year, a crucial one because state aid is stagnant or down due to declining income tax revenues, according to Ohio Library Council Government Relations Director Lynda Murray. “We usually pass our levies at a rate of 75 to 80%, so this is the worst we’ve done,” she said. The last time Akron–Summit County voters rejected a library levy was 1961, when a bond issue to build a new downtown library was defeated; however, the measure passed on a second try the following year. Posted November 17, 2003. |
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