Will Roosevelt Library be closed?

BY ED FELIEN

Recently the Library Board proposed closing the Webber Park, Southeast and Roosevelt branch libraries in 2007 to make up for a large budget shortfall.
This created a storm of protest among library patrons and other elected officials. Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin and City Council Member Sandra Colvin Roy are suggesting maybe Hennepin County ought to take over the operation of the Minneapolis libraries.

Mayor Rybak has found an additional $1.1 million in temporary funding to ride out the crisis, and Council Member Elizabeth Glidden successfully passed a motion through Ways and Means to find another $250,000 in permanent dollars.
According to members of the Library Board, this still leaves the system $536,626 short if all three branches are to remain open five days a week.
How did we get into such a mess?

The voters in Minneapolis approved a referendum that granted $140 million in new tax dollars to the Minneapolis Public Libraries, but this money was to be used for capital and not operating expenses. $110 million of that went to tear down the old library and build a new one. $30million was to go to repair the branch libraries, but much of that remains unspent because it didn’t make sense to repair a building if there wasn’t going to be money available to staff the building once it was repaired.

Funding for the operating budget comes from two sources: property taxes and local government aid (LGA) from the State. When the LGA formula was favorable, the libraries prospered, but when Governor Pawlenty cut LGA to Minneapolis it created the crisis we have now. It should be noted that Minneapolis pays much more in property taxes to the State than it gets back in LGA.
Earlier this summer (anticipating this crisis) Carol Johnson, of the Board of Estimate and Taxation, moved to increase the mill rate for the libraries allowing them to collect more revenue in 2007, but Mayor Rybak and the City Council voted against the proposal and it failed.

The Library Board is postponing final action until after the Minneapolis City Council finishes its budget deliberations this week. The fate of Roosevelt Library is still uncertain.