By TOM GERROW
BG Independent News
Financial matters were front and center at the Wood County District Public Library’s monthly board of trustees meeting on Aug. 18. The news was mostly good, including the successful completion of a state audit and confirmation that the library’s operating levy renewal successfully made it on the November ballot later this year.
Michael Penrod, the library director, began by discussing the library’s budget with the board, starting with recent changes to state funding through the Public Library Fund (PLF). “Remember, the Public Library Fund is now a line-item appropriation in the state budget,” Penrod said. “We’re not part of a formula with a 60-year-old revenue sharing agreement. We’re now just a line item.”
Penrod said that in years past, the Department of Taxation would provide a certificate for the expected PLF receipts for the coming year. That would then guide the WCDPL budgeting process. But under the current financing arrangements, with the state of Ohio’s fiscal year running from July 1 to June 30 and the WCDPL fiscal year corresponding to the calendar year, the Department of Taxation only listed monthly distributions for the first six months of next year instead of the full calendar year.
“We know what we’re going to get the first six months of next year,” Penrod said. “We have no idea what we’re going to get the second six months.”
Penrod noted that for fiscal year 2026, the PLF distributed $479.7 million to libraries. That was a decrease of 4.93 percent from the $504.6 million distributed in 2025. Penrod said coming up with a number for the finance committee to build a budget required a bit of creative thinking.
“So, we just replicated that number [the first six months funding] and then dropped it by 5 percent,” Penrod said. “If the last state fiscal year was 5 percent less than the year prior, let’s just assume it’s going to be 5 percent again, because I’d rather guess low.”
But overall, Penrod said he expects funding from the state to remain flat going forward. The PLF provides 55 percent of the WCDPL annual funding.
Private philanthropy also plays a significant role in the WCDPL’s funding. The Library Foundation’s “Securing Our Future” campaign succeeded in raising its $2 million goal in April. The recent Novel Night was also the most successful to date, raising more than $165,000, which will go toward purchasing materials for library patrons. Private philanthropy makes up about 6 percent of the library’s annual funding.
Penrod also noted that County Commissioners had approved including a levy renewal on this November’s ballot. The original 0.8 mil levy was first approved by voters in 2010, then renewed twice since then in 2014 and 2020 with solid voter support (70+ percent both times).
Because the levy requests have been renewals, they are designed to raise a specific amount of money. So as property values have risen, the levy doesn’t collect more money but rather the same amount as in 2010: $1,212,284. As calculated by the Wood County Auditor, the effective millage today is 0.5055239 for residential/agriculture and 0.696486 for commercial/industrial. The levy renewal request is for six years, starting in 2027. The levy provides 34 percent of WCDPL annual funding.
After shepherding the levy renewal request through the Board of Elections and the County Commissioners, and getting the Ohio Secretary of State’s approval for the final ballot language, Penrod was glad his portion of the work on the levy renewal is done.
“Now your levy committee has a job to do,” he told the board members, who will serve as the primary advocates for the levy renewal.
The board heard about the success of the WCDPL’s youth summer programming. More than 6,000 youths participated in 176 different programs. The Summer Reading Program had 1,478 participants who read for 1,275,358 minutes. Participation increased by 32 percent and time spent reading was up 27 percent. Volunteens at the library also logged more than 2,000 hours.
Linda Joseph, the library’s fiscal officer, informed the board that the state audit for 2024-2025 was completed on Aug. 17. This was a full audit, which took about two weeks. Joseph told the board that the WCDPL can request an exit conference with the auditor to go over the report, if desired.
“We usually waive it unless there’s something that we know is going to be of significance in the report,” Joseph said. “And as of now, he did not relay anything of significance to me that would be forthcoming.”
Trustee Brian Paskvan was also reappointed to the board for a new four-year term.
