Mississippi libraries are bracing for tightened belts after a cut in state funding to the Mississippi Library Commission.
The MLC — the parent organization for the state’s public libraries — is losing more than $1 million after legislators voted to cut funding for Fiscal Year 2017.
MLC received $11.55 million in FY 2016. This coming fiscal year, it will receive $10.5 million, according to Susan Cassagne, the executive director of MLC.
Cassagne said the commission’s concern is that the budget cut will hit small library systems the hardest.
“This may stretch local libraries’ budgets to the point where those communities lose their library services,” Cassagne said. “Libraries will close. Staff will be let go.”
Columbus
Erin Busbea, director of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library system, said the budget cuts have led to a loss of $9,831 in Personnel Incentive Grant Program funds, which helps libraries pay workers and buy new materials.
Busbea said the situation is less than ideal but the local library system — which includes branch in Artesia, Caledonia and Crawford — will adapt and should be able to continue providing services.
“We ultimately have fared better than some other public libraries in the state,” Busbea told The Dispatch in an email. “We have been very good stewards of the funding we get each year and have positioned ourselves so that none of our current services will be affected. We will not have to reduce any operating hours, we will not have to shut any doors and we will not have to reduce any staff hours. We are very fortunate.”
With the most recent cut, the library will receive $81,996 in Personnel Incentive Grant Program funding.
The Columbus-Lowndes library system had a $852,784 operating budget at the start of FY 2016. Of that, $273,500 came from Columbus and $355,000 came from Lowndes County.
Starkville
Virginia Holtcamp, the director of the Starkville-Oktibbeha County Public Library System, said the cuts could be “devastating.”
Holtcamp said the system will lose roughly $10,000 in state funding, bringing the total from $81,000 to about $71,000.
“We’re going to have to make that up somewhere in our budget,” Holtcamp said. “We’re trying to figure out how to do that. We’re going to have to, I guess, cut back some services. We really haven’t decided at this point.”
Holtcamp said the library system may have to deal with reduced ability to buy or repair books and computers. She said she does not want to cut staff because the library is already at the “bare minimum” to function and offer its programs.
The Starkville-Oktibbeha County library system, which has branches in Sturgis and Maben, had a budget of about $580,000 for FY 16, Holtcamp said.
That funding includes $175,000 from Starkville, $177,000 from Oktibbeha County, $18,000 from Maben and $7,500 from Sturgis.
The rest of the library’s funding comes from a mix of grants, fees, fines, gifts and other sources.
‘When services are impacted, the community suffers’
Cassagne said there are ways local libraries can make up on the missing funds. She said local communities can choose to raise taxes — up to four mills for cities, three mills for counties — or allocate more money to libraries that operate out of a general fund.
Rising property values can bolster the budgets of libraries that are funded through tax money, but Cassagne said libraries could feel more of a pinch in communities with falling property values.
Whatever the options, Cassagne said it’s important to keep funding the state’s libraries. She said in some communities, especially in the more rural areas of the state, they’re the only way for people to access the Internet.
“The library is probably one of the very few institutions that caters to everyone from birth to death, no matter the socio-economic status,” Cassagne said. “When their services are impacted, the community suffers.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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