The Washoe County Library System is facing a $4.5 million budget cut following the failure of WC-1, the ballot initiative that would have extended designated library funding. After the measure failed, the tax money will still be collected but will no longer be dedicated to libraries.
Libraries Director Scott, at Wednesday’s library board of trustees meeting at the downtown library, presented the dire financial outlook for the library system. “It’s a fairly severe crisis,” he said. The funding loss will lead to the elimination of 23 staff positions and the entire book budget.
“There’s not a scenario in which you’re going to avoid layoffs. You’re losing the expansion fund, and so anyone in there is going to be gone,” he said. “That’s 23 positions just in there, and top of that, you’re going to lose $1.4 million of your book budget. That’s an entirety of your book budget. You won’t be able to order books.”
Scott said county commissioners during the Great Recession chose to use an expansion fund, originally intended for new facilities, to retain library staff. The library system at that time faced a 40% cut.
“The county decided to use the expansion fund instead of using it for new facilities or repairing facilities, to put staff in there,” Scott said. That decision, while averting immediate layoffs, created a potential crisis if the expansion tax was not renewed.”
Scott said the Washoe County Employee Association was going to petition the Board of County Commissioners to keep the funding for libraries.
The board requested more details on the budget, hoping to find alternatives to the proposed cuts. Scott agreed to provide a more detailed budget breakdown for the January meeting and suggested inviting a county budget representative to explain the library’s funding structure. Budget cuts are not expected to take effect until July 1.
Correction: It is the Washoe County Employee Association that is going to support the funding, not the Education Association, as originally reported.
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