Jonathan Bullington / TribLocal reporter
Members of the Evanston Public Library Board are continuing to assure residents that their recent move to separate finances in the city budget is not immediately aimed at higher taxes, but instead at making the finances more transparent to residents.
About 50 people attended a forum on Saturday to discuss the board’s recent controversial adoption of a “Public Library Fund.”
In early August, the board voted 6-2 to adopt the fund, which by state law would allow the board to oversee the finances and direct the city council how much to levy in taxes to keep it balanced.
Since its adoption, the fund has been the source of much debate in the city, with some saying the board’s move would amount to a new tax for residents.
“The board’s goal is to stabilize library funding in a responsible, transparent and prudent manner that is sensitive to today’s difficult economic environment,: library board president Christopher Stewart told residents at the weekend forum. “We’re property-tax payers and homeowners. It is not our intention to move in a way that is not prudent and transparent.”
Stewart and other board members have consistently touted the library fund a way for residents to see how much of their tax dollars are being allocated to the library, but would not necessarily constitute a new tax.
“I know that there is a great deal of concern about how the fund will operate and possible increases in property taxes,” said board secretary Diane Allen-Jacobi, who brought her property tax bill to the meeting to illustrate how it contains separate line items for such taxing entities as the school district, Ridgeville Park District, North Shore Mosquito Abatement District and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.
“So everyone of you can go home if you have a property tax bill and look and see how much we’re paying for mosquito abatement, but you can’t look and see how much we’re paying for library service,” she said.
Allen-Jacobi said the fund would merely separate the current library levy as a line item similar to the other taxing districts mentioned.
Still unclear in the library fund discussion is what exactly the library budget will look like and what the tax levy will be.
Board members reminded residents that state law caps the maximum allowable library levy at .23 percent of equalized value of property.
They also pointed out that past budget cuts have weakened the library’s collections and staffing levels.
“Our collections budget was cut by 20 percent,” Allen-Jacobi said. “We reduced people, we reduced collections, because we were told we had to reduce our budget. If we had those monies we originally asked for, we’d probably have more librarians and a more updated collection. That’s really a huge part of what we want to do for the library system in Evanston.”
But board members said they hadn’t made specific budget decisions, particularly in regards to maintaining the branch libraries or expanding library services throughout the city.
The board will host another funding forum from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 1 at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center, 1655 Foster St.
How nice to see objective & balanced reporting on the Library Board’s funding forum. There is so much mean sprited writing, fear mongering & non-factual content that is being put on the Internet concerning this issue, that is a refreshing relief to have a real reporter that is actually reporting the story without subjective bias. Thank you, Mr. Bullington!