Library funding from Dunn County is payment for services already provided
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — When the Dunn County Board approves library funding for the 2024 budget, the county will be approving funding to the libraries in Boyceville, Colfax, Menomonie and Sand Creek for services already provided to county residents.
Dunn County provides funding at 100 percent of the cost to libraries for services received by residents living in Dunn County but outside of the municipality with the library, and when that funding is paid, it is actually reimbursing the libraries for services received by county residents two years ago, said John Thompson, director of the IFLS Library System, at a special meeting of the Dunn County Library Planning Committee on October 17.
Gary Stene, county board supervisor from Colfax and chair of the library planning committee, said he had called the special meeting as an educational opportunity for committee members and members of the Dunn County Board to learn more about how libraries are funded.
Dunn County has four libraries: the Boyceville Public Library, the Colfax Public Library, the Menomonie Public Library and the Clarella Hackett Johnson Library in Sand Creek.
The library facility in Elk Mound is actually a branch of the Menomonie Public Library.
The formula used for county library funding is the total operational expenditures for each library, divided by that library’s total circulation to determine the cost of circulation, Thompson said.
The cost of the circulation is multiplied by the number of items checked out of the library by people living in Dunn County who do not live in the municipality, he said.
State law requires counties to fund the use of county residents at 70 percent.
Dunn County decided a number of years ago to fund the use of county residents at 100 percent.
Other counties
The county also pays adjoining counties for the use of their libraries by residents of the county, and the county receives funding from adjoining counties for the residents of the adjoining counties who use the county’s libraries, Thompson said.
For example, Dunn County pays Eau Claire County for Colfax, Elk Mound and other county residents who use the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire.
Dunn County also receives funding for any Eau Claire County residents who use the libraries in Dunn County.
The funding that counties appropriate for municipal libraries is always based on usage from two years ago, Thompson said.
For the 2024 budget, the information on library usage from 2022 was submitted to Dunn County in 2023, and the amount is used in the 2024 budget and is paid to the libraries in 2024, he said.
The formula is a way to make sure that residents in the county are receiving services in an equitable way, Thompson said.
Jim Tripp, a member of the library planning committee who previously served as a supervisor on the Dunn County Board and who also served on the Dunn County Community Resources and Tourism Committee, said one question that was asked when he was on the CRT committee is what would be the effect of Dunn County not funding libraries at 100 percent
The answer is, in order to provide services at the same level, the county must provide support at the same level, Tripp said.
Unique?
Joleen Sterk, director of the Menomonie Public Library, noted that for the Menomonie library, most of the usage is from residents out in the county rather than residents of the city and asked whether that was a unique situation.
Generally, library usage is higher for municipal residents rather than county residents, Thompson said.
The residents of the municipalities might account for 60 percent of the library usage, and residents in the county account for 40 percent of the usage, he said, adding that sometimes it is closer with 55 percent of the usage from residents in the municipality and 45 percent usage from residents in the county.
For the Colfax Public Library, Dunn County provides two-thirds of the funding for the library, and the village of Colfax provides one-third of the library’s funding.
In years past, Colfax village board members have asked why the residents of the village should pay for residents outside of the village “to use our library,” not understanding that two-thirds of the Colfax library’s funding comes from Dunn County for those residents who live outside of the village.
Dunn County is relatively unique, Thompson said.
For libraries to receive more funding from the county than from the municipality is “not normal,” he said, adding that in most cases, the municipality pays more than the county, although not in Dunn County.
100 percent
Pat Eggert of Colfax, a member of the library planning committee, said she was a member of the Dunn County Board when the county went to 100 percent funding of the libraries for county residents’ usage.
Many on the county board looked at it as “a gift” to the libraries, but it is not a gift — it is payment for services that have already been provided, she said.
Without the money from the county, residents in the rural areas would be in real trouble for library services, Eggert said, noting that she is a resident of rural Dunn County, lives outside of Colfax and uses the Colfax library.
If Dunn County cuts the 100 percent funding for county residents who use libraries, the libraries “will be in a race to the bottom,” she said.
A reduction in funding would lead to cuts in services, such as reduced hours and fewer programs, Eggert said.
“It is critical to keep the 100 percent funding from Dunn County,” she said.
Shelly Rae, director of the Clarella Hackett Johnson Library in Sand Creek, said the Town of Sand Creek has not always supported the library as well as might be expected so that the town’s funding and the county’s funding are about equal.
As a result, the library in Sand Creek is only open three and a half days per week, and the library cannot do all of the programs that the community would appreciate, she said.
Rae said if she went to the mechanic who fixed her car and told the mechanic that he or she “had done a great job of repairing, but I am only going to pay you 70 percent (of the repair bill) and you may have to wait a couple of years to get your money” that would not go over very well.
Not paying twice
The library funding provided by the municipality and by the county go to the library board, and the library board, by state law, has exclusive control of how those funds are spent, Thompson said.
Every year, the four municipalities with libraries — Boyceville, Colfax, Menomonie and Sand Creek — have the option of approving a resolution for residents of the municipalities to be exempt from paying the county library tax so that residents of the municipality do not pay twice for the library, he said.
The resolutions are approved by the municipal board, and then they are sent to the county clerk, and then the county clerk makes sure the residents of the municipalities are not taxed for the county library tax, said Andrew Mercil, Dunn County clerk.
Library funding is one of the few exemptions that municipalities are allowed to take outside of the revenue limit, Thompson said.
State law allows municipalities to only levy a certain amount of property taxes.
For example, if a municipality is allowed to have $200,000 in revenue from property taxes, and the amount for the library is $40,000, if the library funding is kept within the levy limit, then the municipality has $160,000 to use for operating expenses such as salaries and benefits, utilities, road maintenance and equipment.
If the library funding is taken outside of the revenue limit, then the municipality has $200,000 to spend for operating expenses.
The levy limits are a driving factor in the budgets for all municipalities, Thompson noted.
