The Provo City Library is struggling with a significant budget deficit that is jeopardizing programs and resources for children and adults.

On the potential chopping block is a creative lab where residents can shoot music videos and record podcasts, as well as an attic exhibition space showcasing work by neighborhood and professional artists.

Also at risk is access to free databases that help people budget and invest. And the library may have to reduce its opening hours and staff numbers.

That’s all if the Provo City Council doesn’t approve the library’s request for a local tax increase to cover its financial needs. The library is about $800,000 short, and to make up for that, it has already cut about $235,000 worth of services, library director Carla Gordon said.

According to Gordon, the city needs about $500,000 to maintain the remaining facilities and, most importantly, the staff to operate them. This means that taxes would have to be increased by about $12 per household and about $22 per business.

The Provo City Council voted 6-1 in June to hold a “truth to tax” hearing on Aug. 13. Such hearings are required when a business wants to raise more property tax revenue than it did last year and more than it would with normal growth. Only Council member Travis Hoban, who represents the 4th District, voted against it.

Before the June 18 meeting, the City Council had received more than 200 emails supporting holding the tax hearing, as well as nine from people who were either unsure or opposed – “more public input on a single issue than I’ve received on anything else in my entire time on the council,” said Councilwoman Rachel Whipple, who has represented the city’s 5th District since 2021.

More than a dozen people spoke in favor of the library – and holding the tax hearing – during the public hearing in June, recalling how they have used the library over the years.

The potential $12 tax increase “maybe equal the price of a hardcover book, and even then that’s a cheap hardcover book when you buy books,” said library board member Jennifer Bruton, who spoke on behalf of herself and her children at the June meeting. “The library offers so much more than just books on the shelf.”

According to 2021 data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Provo City Library serves approximately 115,160 people. According to an analysis of this data, it ranks 17th in the state in terms of the amount it spends per service area resident – ​​$39.29.

In terms of per capita spending, it is just between the Garland Public Library and the Ephraim Public Library. and supports around one hundred thousand more people than either system.

The library has already made cuts to save money

When the Provo library moved to its current building in 2001—the site of the former Brigham Young Academy, built in the late 19th century—officials raised the tax levy as high as possible, anticipating having to spend more money to maintain and staff the larger, older building, Gordon says.

“But when they got in, they realized they didn’t actually need all the money they had,” Gordon said, “so they put it in a savings account.”

For about 10 years, a surplus flowed into the savings account until inflation set in and the library administration made the decision — “whether right or wrong,” Gordon said — to withdraw money from the savings account to make ends meet, until the account had shrunk to about 35 percent of their annual budget.

Gordon said the “understanding, thought or hope” is that at some point library officials will stop dipping into the library’s savings accounts and demanding a tax increase.

The library requested a tax increase last year for the first time in more than 20 years, Gordon said, and it passed, resulting in a tax increase of about $2.50 per household in Provo.

However, this was not enough, especially after the library’s cooling system failed, she said.

The library has already shut down certain services, such as part of its movie and music streaming service, and has also cut its budget for part of its collections (the books, including e-books and audiobooks, that can be borrowed) — amounting to a miser’s coalition of around $235,000.

“We looked at everything we could cut that people would miss but wouldn’t die without,” Gordon said.

“Too important for our community”

If the tax increase is not approved, the library will be forced to cut staff, Gordon said. That means fewer people will be available to run library programs, such as the popular story hours for children.

At the June meeting, Councilman George Handley said that even with a tax increase this year, the library would need regular money to make ends meet. He feared that the City Council was not supporting the library sufficiently.

“We pay less for our library today than we did 24 years ago, and the library has offered its services with declining purchasing power over those years. That’s a real problem,” he said. “So I’m not willing to ask them to be more creative with their budget when they’ve already proven they’ve done that very well.”

Council Member Whipple seemed to agree, saying the library’s strategy of dipping into its savings and doing more with less, while a great strategy to get through tough times, is not sustainable.

“Because if you try to do more with less over a long period of time, eventually you just end up doing less. You burn out your people. You realize you can’t maintain our exceptional level of service and quality and you have to make cuts,” she said. “This resource is too important to our community.”

Residents will have the opportunity to voice their opinion on whether or not they support the property increase at a tax hearing scheduled for August 13. Residents can also submit their comments by email to [email protected] or by mail at communityfeedback.opengov.com/portals/provout/Issue_13947.

The city council is expected to make its final decision on August 20.