It’s budget season for both the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library system and the Willard Library.
On Monday, the EVPL went before the Evansville City Council to provide a budget summary. This includes a 2.1-percent increase for the coming budget overall, or $486,949.
The Proposed budget is $23,659,130. The proposed levy increase is $880, 533 — a separate number from the budget increase.
EVPL CEO Scott Kinney said the budget increase will mainly offset rising utility costs. The biggest upcoming project is construction of the new Red Bank Library branch.
“We'll be so excited for that to happen,” Kinney said. “That will be the biggest thing that will be happening throughout this year. The rest is just tremendous library programming and enjoying the libraries that we have been able to renovate.”
Folded into the EVPL budget is the $1 million Special Library Fund that supports Willard Public Library.
Willard Library Executive Director George Carter said one of the biggest changes with the current state budget is the loss of subsidized WIFI.
“That subsidized funding was cut,” he said. “So our broadband, like our internet to the public and for the building, went up substantially, and we still get a discount on that. But that's currently under discussion as well.”
The cost went from $100 per month to $400. Carter said every dollar counts. Most high-cost improvements are funded through the library’s private foundation.
EVPL director of Finance Lori Tomlin shared the basics, and how the library system is working with a new Indiana law:
“All (public) libraries within the state of Indiana — their maximum growth of their budgets, not their levy, but their budgets — was half of what the maximum levy growth quotient is set by the state, and so the state set that at 6-percent this year. That means the libraries throughout the state of Indiana only allowed to increase their budget by 3-percent.”
By keeping the budget’s growth under 3-percent, libraries like EVPL have an easier time getting their budgets passed.
At the meeting, EVPL Chief Operating Officer Heather Kelsey said summer reading is up, and that they held 600 summer programs in two months.
“Which is absolutely crazy. But we did it, and our staff was phenomenal, putting on programs for people of all ages. And let me tell you, 2027, they're already planning it.”
The library budget has been in the works since June. The library board will approve it at a meeting on October 8th.
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