11. During last years’ budget process, it was discovered that the Marathon County Library, Wausau, had almost a million dollars in a saving account. Given that information, it appeared as if the library was requesting budget amounts that were in excess of their needs. This money was appropriated through the budget requests and hence provided by the taxpayers.
Given that this large amount of money had been set aside, the board discussed reducing the budget allowance for the library to more adequately represent the amount of money that had been in excess in yearly budget requests.
Please explain how you would handle a budget request, where you were able to find that the institution had managed to ‘save’ a large sum of money, while others were struggling to make ends meet with the budgets provided. Do you feel that an institution should be given the full amount of their request when such funds had been ‘saved’.
Answer
According to correspondence from Finance Director Palmer (see references below), the Library Fund Balance totaled $996,438 at the end of 2022.
Administrator Leonhard included a $350,000 cut in the 2023 Library tax levy with the goal of reducing the Library Fund Balance down to a target of $300,000. The Library kept their 2023 budget roughly at the same level as the 2022 budget and replaced the reduced tax levy with funds from the Fund Balance.
For the 2024 budget, the Administrator reversed the $350,000 cut from 2023 and proposed raising the tax levy to around the 2022 level.
On November 6, 2023, I estimated that the Library Fund Balance would be $652,323 at the end of 2023. Based on the Library Financial Statements for December 2023, my current estimate is that the end of 2023 Library Fund Balance was probably around $620,000.
I originally planned to offer an amendment to reduce the amount that the 2024 Library tax levy was raised from the 2023 level by $165,000 based on my estimates of the 2023 Library expenditures and estimated end of year 2023 Library Fund Balance. I did not offer this amendment so as to not cause concern and anxiety for a significant number of our residents.
It is my understanding that the Library intends to utilize some of the Library Fund Balance for capital expenditures that are not included in the Library’s operating budget. It seems likely that using the some of the Library Fund Balance for capital expenditures will bring the Fund Balance down to near the Administrator’s target of $300,000. I am fine with this approach.
References
