Next year the funding landscape is even more difficult. The City of Portland is considering scenarios that either “flat fund” the Library or reduce the Library’s funding by $50,000 from the current year. The difficulty is, of course, that in the fulfillment of all types of contracts such as technology, staff, maintenance, etc., “flat funding” means an inability to meet the contractual demands at the current level. The result is a reduction in expenses to meet the income available. In our case the major reduction in expenses will have to be staffing levels. The current work has led us to the conclusion that 6 FTEs (Full Time Equivalents) will need to be eliminated and other savings found in order for us to create a balanced budget.
The City is clearly in a difficult time and it may be a multi year situation. The Library has many friends in the community and is appreciated by a City Council that understands its value. The irony, of course, is that an institution functioning at record setting levels and is most needed during periods of economic downturn will be severely compromised in doing the work. It is a huge challenge for the Council to engage in anything other than triage at this point due to the depth of the problem. The Library has to respond intelligently to the situation with a plan that attempts to position us for better days, yet still tries to provide quality service when open.
Though the details of our response are still being refined, one thing is at least clear: the Portland Public Library system will not be open as many hours beginning July 1. Though we all understand and experience daily the fiscal realities, as Maine’s most heavily used visited public cultural resource there is sadness to our being less available.
We have attempted to provide some additional information concerning the budget situation for next year through a series of FAQs. The first FAQ document is located on the Portland Public Library web-site at http://www.portlandlibrary.com/Press/BUDGETFAQ042508.pdf
