By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Michael Penrod has joined his fellow Ohio librarians to lobby the State Senate to maintain the current rate for library funding.
He also testified on May 4 before the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee in his role as a member of the Ohio Library Council’s government affairs committee.
The state supports public libraries through the Public Library Fund, which is based on a percentage of state revenue. Penrod, director of the Wood County District Public Library, said the money ebbs and flows monthly based on how well the state’s economy is doing. Librarians are fine with that he told the library board of trustees this week.
They know how to tighten their belts when revenue is down, as was the case last year during the earliest months of the pandemic, and they can stock away money when the revenue is good, so they can pay for infrastructure without tapping into money for essential services.
In 2019, the Wood County library replaced its 1974 chiller plant in 2019 for $160,000, and is planning to replace its heating plant next year, at a cost of about $150,000.
The fund is “critical” for the library, he said. It represents 60 percent of the library’s tax-generated revenue. The library received $1,569,273 in 2020, about $68,000 less than it received in 2008. The amounts, however, can vary widely, both up and down, Penrod said.
The state’s libraries have been receiving 1.7 percent of state revenues, but this is in temporary law in the last biennial budget. The permanent figure is 1.66 percentage.
Penrod said libraries would like that 1.7 percent written into the budget bill now working its way through the legislature. The budget emerged from the House with the 1.66 percent in place, and now the Senate must act on the budget.
While that may seem like “a rounding error,” the difference is significant, he said. Penrod said it is a matter of keeping the promise that when the economy “flows” so will money into the Public Library Fund.
Penrod is confident of the support from State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, who chairs the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee.
In his testimony before the committee earlier this month, he said: “Ohio’s public libraries remain strong and ready to serve the needs of Ohioans today and into the future. Much of this strength comes from the long-standing partnership Ohio’s public libraries have had with the State of Ohio through the Public Library Fund (PLF).”
Even if the rate is maintained, he told library trustees, the fund may still bring in less if a 2-percent cut in income taxes in the House budget goes through. That would reduce state revenues and make libraries’ share that much smaller. He estimated that the combination of the reduction in the PLF and the tax cut would cut money going to the state’s libraries by 4.3 percent even as the state’s economy is expected to grow.
The library council takes no stand on tax reform, he said.
He also noted that local libraries are getting no money from the American Rescue Plan.
Penrod urged the library trustees to get out the message that “the Public Library Fund is essential to performance of what the Wood County District Public Libraries and all public libraries can do.”
