Library Budget

IT MUST BE understood by the public and especially the City Council that the proposed $2 billion spending plan submitted by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is only a recommendation. Despite or because of his call for a 10 percent income tax increase, his ideas as to where budget cuts should occur are nowhere set in stone.Especially keep that in mind in regard to the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Branches might be closed under the mayor's budget. The Pratt asked for $21.2 million, but his budget gives it only $19.7 million if the income tax is raised; $18.2 million if it isn't.

Facing the prospect of more cutbacks in library hours and other declines, Anne Arundel County Public Library administrator Hampton "Skip" Auld is taking a page from other services clamoring for scarce county dollars. Auld is turning to the community for support, seeking to energize library patrons in much the same way that public schools have turned parents into lobbyists. He is hoping that a public outcry will pressure elected officials to keep reductions in the library budget well below the 10 percent that County Executive John R. Leopold has asked of each agency.

Faced with the possibility of a $30,000 budget cut, the Carroll County Public Library system plans to earn its money -- one ghost story at a time. For the first time since the library became a countywide system in 1958, the library board will hold a fund-raiser this year to pay for items unavailable in the current budget. The library is selling $25 tickets for a Carroll County Ghost Walk on April 14, which is during National Library Week. Circulating about 19 items per county resident each year, the Carroll library system is the busiest in the state.

The Anne Arundel County Public Library system is establishing a foundation that would raise money to build special collections, enhance old programs and add new ones. Funds raised by the foundation would supplement the annual $17 million budget that allows the library system to provide basic services. "Current library funding doesn't provide us the means to make our libraries exceptional," said Marion Francis, library administrator for the county public library for the past five years.

Carroll's Library Board of Trustees, denied 1991-1992 capital funding for system expansion, voted Wednesday to renew their request for 1993.Although the County Commissioners denied or postponed until 1998 all library capital budget requests this year, board members said the system's needs are unchanged. The county's capital budgets are submitted on a five-year plan.Director Martha M. Makosky said library budget figures should be similar to last year's, even though the county Bureau of Building Construction has to update costs based on inflation and square footage.

Laurel and Maryland City residents have lobbied three county executives for a new library. They hope John G. Gary will be the one to build it.Mr. Gary has placed $2 million in his proposed budget to begin building a 14,000-square-foot library branch in the Russett community, across Route 198 from the old library in the Maryland City Plaza.Replacing the 17-year-old branch is second in priority only to $600,000 for an automation project in the library's capital budget request. Maryland City would be the only library built in the next fiscal year, said library spokeswoman Diane M. Rey.The county executive's budget estimates the library will cost $4.3 million, with the county's portion of the cost spread over two years.

As many as 30 workers could lose their jobs as the Carroll County library system struggles to trim its budget by $643,000.The library board, responding to a $5 million shortfall in the county's operating budget, is being asked to cut 14 percent of its $4.5 million spending plan for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.Besides eliminating staff positions, the seven-member board is looking at cutting hours at its Westminster and other four branches by...

Any Anne Arundel resident who has ever satisfied a yen for a good book with a trip to a county library owes Edward Hall a debt of gratitude.Mr. Hall, the county library administrator for the last 22 years, retires Oct. 4. During his long tenure, he has worked diligently, quietly and without controversy to build a system of 14 branches that now circulates 5.1 million books, magazines, videos, pamphlets and records a year. And he did it despite a succession of county councils that have always treated the library budget as an easy mark for cuts.

Carroll County has one of the best library systems in the state. The commissioners should do all they can to ensure that it retains that status instead of expressing hostility toward county libraries, as they did recently. A good library system says volumes about a community and its feelings toward knowledge, learning and its heritage.During their review of the library budget, the commissioners indicated, in several disparaging remarks, that Library Director Martha Makovsky had gotten accustomed to requesting "Cadillacs" rather than Chevies and that librarians earn too much money.

The well has run dry.After months of cost-cutting at the CarrollCounty Public Library -- from renegotiating contracts to turning offevery other light at headquarters -- board members say there is nothing more to cut to meet the latest budget crisis without affecting service.At the last round of local cuts, $135,084 -- or 3.6 percent of the total budget -- was taken to meet the shortfall in state money."We said that's all we have, Steve (Powell, county budget director),"said Martha M. Makosky, library director.

A bill in the House of Delegates designed to expand the pool of people who serve on Carroll County Public Library's board of trustees has been withdrawn. The Carroll delegation's bill, which would have allowed Carroll commissioners to appoint members to the voluntary board from "other sources" without the recommendation of the standing library board, had been opposed by the library board and the library director. "We have reached an understanding with the Library Board of Trustees and believe the issues can be resolved without legislation," Del. Nancy R. Stocksdale, a Republican, wrote in a letter this week withdrawing the measure.

Faced with the possibility of a $30,000 budget cut, the Carroll County Public Library system plans to earn its money -- one ghost story at a time. For the first time since the library became a countywide system in 1958, the library board will hold a fund-raiser this year to pay for items unavailable in the current budget. The library is selling $25 tickets for a Carroll County Ghost Walk on April 14, which is during National Library Week. Circulating about 19 items per county resident each year, the Carroll library system is the busiest in the state.

Increases in fines and video rental fees have helped the Baltimore County library system avoid a budget shortfall, director Jim Fish says.What Fish feared might become an $800,000 shortfall in the system's $21.7 million budget is expected to melt away by June, he said, aided by cost-cutting moves that were paired with fee increases.Based on gloomy projections in November, Fish reduced costs by cutting hours for some part-time workers. He also boosted revenues from video rentals, fines and other services, which the system depends on for at least $2.3 million annually.

IT MUST BE understood by the public and especially the City Council that the proposed $2 billion spending plan submitted by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is only a recommendation. Despite or because of his call for a 10 percent income tax increase, his ideas as to where budget cuts should occur are nowhere set in stone.Especially keep that in mind in regard to the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Branches might be closed under the mayor's budget. The Pratt asked for $21.2 million, but his budget gives it only $19.7 million if the income tax is raised; $18.2 million if it isn't.

As many as 30 workers could lose their jobs as the Carroll County library system struggles to trim its budget by $643,000.The library board, responding to a $5 million shortfall in the county's operating budget, is being asked to cut 14 percent of its $4.5 million spending plan for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.Besides eliminating staff positions, the seven-member board is looking at cutting hours at its Westminster and other four branches by...

Laurel and Maryland City residents have lobbied three county executives for a new library. They hope John G. Gary will be the one to build it.Mr. Gary has placed $2 million in his proposed budget to begin building a 14,000-square-foot library branch in the Russett community, across Route 198 from the old library in the Maryland City Plaza.Replacing the 17-year-old branch is second in priority only to $600,000 for an automation project in the library's capital budget request. Maryland City would be the only library built in the next fiscal year, said library spokeswoman Diane M. Rey.The county executive's budget estimates the library will cost $4.3 million, with the county's portion of the cost spread over two years.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke hinted yesterday that he may propose an increase in the city's "piggyback" income tax to fund a budget increase being sought by officials of the cash-starved Enoch Pratt Free Library."

Los Angeles -- A library, someone once said, is the diary of the human race. If so, the days are getting shorter for California.In the same year that the new mayor of Los Angeles, Richard Riordan, tried to sell the city's restored main library to Philip Morris Inc. for $70 million, there were these other milestones in the history of slaking this desert state's thirst for knowledge:* Los Angeles County closed nine of the county's 97 branch libraries --...

Los Angeles -- A library, someone once said, is the diary of the human race. If so, the days are getting shorter for California.In the same year that the new mayor of Los Angeles, Richard Riordan, tried to sell the city's restored main library to Philip Morris Inc. for $70 million, there were these other milestones in the history of slaking this desert state's thirst for knowledge:* Los Angeles County closed nine of the county's 97 branch libraries --...

Any Anne Arundel resident who has ever satisfied a yen for a good book with a trip to a county library owes Edward Hall a debt of gratitude.Mr. Hall, the county library administrator for the last 22 years, retires Oct. 4. During his long tenure, he has worked diligently, quietly and without controversy to build a system of 14 branches that now circulates 5.1 million books, magazines, videos, pamphlets and records a year. And he did it despite a succession of county councils that have always treated the library budget as an easy mark for cuts.