photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Library Executive Director Brad Allen, far right, discusses the library's budget with board members as part of the board's meeting June 20, 2022.

The Lawrence Public Library board has voted to amend its budget submission, electing to spend $50,000 from the library’s reserve fund to reduce the new taxpayer funds needed for staff raises and other expenses.

The board voted unanimously to approve the amendment as part of its meeting Monday at the library, 707 Vermont St. The library board built the budget on a 15% revenue increase, and when the increase in property values in the city came in below that, at 12%, Library Executive Director Brad Allen said he made the recommendation to the board’s budget committee to make up some of that difference using cash reserves.

The board approved the recommendation for a $50,000 allocation from reserves, which required a property tax rate increase of about 0.078 mills to cover the difference. That brings the library’s property tax rate to about 4.12 mills. Though Allen recognized that Lawrence taxpayers would still see a slight increase, he said wanted to put the increase in context of what the owner of a $250,000 house would pay in new taxes toward the library. That owner would pay about $14 more per year toward the library if the house increases in value by 12%, making its new value $280,000, and another $2.50 on top of that due to the library’s property rate increase.

“The difference in actual costs to the taxpayer between your flat mill and what you’re proposing, on a house that’s at the median price, is $2.50,” Allen said. “I think that’s important perspective taking when we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars of city and county and school budgets, and people getting four- and five-thousand-dollar tax bills.”

The library board voted in April to approve an additional $753,000 in funding, which is equal to a 15% revenue increase, rather than a specific increase to the library’s property tax rate. When the budget was originally proposed, property valuations were not yet final, so only estimates could be made regarding how the library’s budget would affect its tax rate. Since then, the Douglas County Clerk’s Office has calculated that property values in the city have increased by 12%. If the board had not made any amendments to its budget, a higher property tax rate increase would have been required to fulfill the library’s budget submission.

Allen told the board that if it wanted to keep the library’s mill levy flat it would require $150,000 from the library’s reserves — an amount he said he did not feel comfortable with — to pay for the staff raises desired and other expenses.

As the Journal-World recently reported, the additional $753,000 in funding will help pay for a 17% to 21% pay increase for most of the library’s 85 staff members. It will also help pay for the reinstatement of a marketing position at the library. Allen previously told the Journal-World that the dollar amount was arrived at following a recent compensation study, completed by McGrath Human Resources Group, to determine how much more library staff would need to be paid to bring their pay rates in line with city staff of similar responsibility level, and also looked at compensation at other libraries in Kansas.

photo by: Lawrence Public Library

The Lawrence Public Library’s 2023 pay plan.

The board had been aiming to increase staff wages and keep the library mill levy rate flat if possible, and there was some discussion among the board Monday about whether the community would be supportive of the property tax increase. Allen told the board that if there was a negative response, that the board could still change its budget. He noted that the Lawrence City Commission will not consider the city manager’s recommended budget until July 12, and the budget won’t be voted on until August.

“If there is like public outcry and you feel like you made a mistake, you can say, ‘I heard you, this was too much,’ and you can walk it back,” Allen said.

Board member David Vance spoke to the board’s long-standing goal to improve staff pay, saying if the library does not go forward with the full amount for raises, it would just set the board up for higher hurdles in the future.

“We’ve been on this treadmill for all the time that I’ve been on the board, trying to get pay equity just for comparable libraries in our area,” Vance said.

Board member Ursula Minor agreed, saying that the board had talked about getting to a higher level of compensation for a long time, and that she was comfortable with the recommended amendment.

The library’s current property tax rate of 4.042 mills, which generates about $5.1 million to fund the library, is part of the city’s overall rate of about 33.3 mills. The library’s budget submission comes at a time when the Lawrence City Commission has recently committed to keeping the city’s property tax rate flat, and Vice Mayor Lisa Larsen expressed interest in potentially decreasing the rate due to the rise in property valuations. The commission will begin budget discussions Tuesday, when it is scheduled to consider the city’s spending plan for capital improvements.