East Central Regional Library (ECRL) Executive Director Carla Lyddon was present at the Nov. 15 Mille Lacs County Board of Commissioners to give background for the 2023 funding request, along with numbers of each of the county’s libraries.
ECRL made a request of $305,601 for Mille Lacs County, “in accordance with the joint powers agreement,” Lyddon said. That Joint Powers Agreement stipulates that the Joint Library Board annually establishes a general operating budget. From that budget, the formula divides it between the counties equitably by considering the county’s tax capacity, the population and the registration or borrow circulation.
Lyddon said that since 2010, the library request has gone up 17%, stating, “we have kept your part of our budget very minimal.”
In 2021, the contribution Mille Lacs County made provided a value of over $500,000 – meaning the county is “seeing more direct benefit” than it’s providing monetarily. Within the county, year-to-date, the Princeton library has seen 21,000 visits, 14,000 visits in Milaca, and 4,000 in Isle. Traffic is kept by a door counter, which isn’t a perfect measure, Lyddon said, but it helps them understand trends.
Lyddon mentioned the Onamia Depot Library outreach service, which was suspended earlier this year, though it “was a well-used outreach location.” Fully funding ECRL would restore that service.
Commissioner Dave Oslin asked about “potential ramifications” if ECRL was given a lower allocation, specifically in regards to the Isle location. Lyddon said the ECRL board would ultimately make the decision of how to use the allocation, but she would not advocate for closure of the Isle branch. The amount of cuts made would depend on the level of reduction of funding.
While the board is only required to fund, at a minimum, $199,000 of the ECRL request by state statute, Lyddon said that number was formulated based on 2009 funding. The maintenance of effort number required was previously based upon 90% of the funding two years prior. In 2010 or 2011, the maintenance of effort formula was frozen, and therefore did not grow with the funding requested as it would have otherwise.
Chair Genny Reynolds thanked Lyddon for her time and said the report was something “we’ve never seen before,” and would be “helpful for us to make future decisions.”
As previously reported, ECRL’s request of $305,601 is up from their request for the 2022 budget, which was $300,388. But Mille Lacs County didn’t meet that request last year. Their contribution remained at $289,513, which was the request ECRL made for 2021.
Later, in the work meeting, Hayes reported by email that the board decided to increase their funding to ECRL by about $16,000, which would match the requested $305,601. That budget proposal will be part of the Truth in Taxation meeting, which will be held Dec. 8 at 6 p.m.
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