Thursday, January 7, 1999
Library funds lacking
Growing counties getting less
BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Inside downtown Cincinnati's spacious public library, pint-sized readers can pluck thousands of books off 17 rows of shelves or jump on two dozen computers in a Children's Learning Center that's as big as an Olympic swimming pool.
Twenty-five miles north in Warren County, children share space with folded tables, chairs and boxes in a cramped meeting room during story time at the Mason Public Library. The entire building — which has no PCs for kids — is so small it could be plunked down in Cincinnati's learning center with room to spare.
Welcome to the world of state library funding, where Hamilton County reigns supreme and such fast-growing counties as Warren rank last. While residents flock to suburban counties in record numbers, state library dollars are not following them.
A Cincinnati Enquirer analysis of state library funding reveals the fastest-growing of Ohio's 88 counties get the least amount of state money per-person for libraries.
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FUNDING VARIES
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An Enquirer analysis of state library funding records shows:
• Hamilton County was No. 1 in per-capita library funding, with $52.13 per person. The state average was $33.42 per person.
• Warren County, the second-fastest growing county, was last among the 88 counties with $23.36 per person.
• Clermont County ranked 85th, receiving $24.29 per person. • Butler County ranked 73rd, with $25.60 per person.
• Delaware County, the state's fastest growing county, is in the same predicament. The booming county north of Columbus was 87th on the 88-county list, receiving $23.52 per person.
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Large urban counties that are losing population receive twice as much money to pour into their libraries as suburban counties flooded with new residents, records show.
That means libraries in such counties as Butler, Warren and Clermont are left with cramped buildings, a lack of books and long waiting lists for research material for both kids and adults.
“They have libraries that look like the Taj Mahal, while we're running our libraries out of Cracker Jack boxes,” said David Gully, administrator of Butler County's Union Township.
The Enquirer analysis of 1997's state library funding records — the most recent data available — shows that of the 15 fastest-growing counties in Ohio since 1990, 13 of them are at the bottom of the list for library money. They also fall well below the state average.
Of the 15 slowest-growing counties, including 14 that are losing population like Hamilton County and Cleve land's Cuyahoga County, six are at the top of the state library funding list.
Warren County, the state's second-fastest growing county, was last among the 88 counties. Hamilton County, whose population dropped 1.7 percent from 1990-97, was first.
“We don't want anything more than anyone else,” said Douglas Bean, director of the Middletown Public Library. “But we don't want anything less.”
The problem for suburban counties is a state funding formula based partly on population and partly on the remains of an older formula that favored large urban library systems found in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo.
Even supporters of the formula admit that suburban counties could lag behind in funding for another 20 years.
Many cash-strapped librarians in those areas say they can't wait that long to catch up. Counties from Delaware to Brown have been forced to ask voters' approval of levies and bond issues for money to build libraries.
But so far, that still isn't enough.
Political solutions may be next. Ohio Rep. Gary Cates said he plans to introduce legislation soon to overhaul library funding. The West Chester Republican seeks a way for the state to pump more money into faster growing counties without taking anything away from the others.
“We would need to find additional dollars and allow lower districts to catch up,” Rep. Cates said.
But changing the library funding formula won't happen without a battle.
Tweaking the formula could open “a Pandora's box of problems,” predicts Ohio Senate President Richard Finan. The Evendale Republican was part of a commission that drafted a new library funding formula in 1986.
A law change “means you're going to have to take money away from somebody to give to someone else,” he said. “That is a major mountain to climb, unless you're willing to raise taxes.”
Suburban migration
Marcia Stephens is a Mason mother of two who brings her young children to the Mason Public Library for its popular story hour. But having lived for years in Hamilton County, she returns to the familiar downtown Cincinnati library to get children's movies and books she can't find in Mason.
“It's surprising, with Mason growing so much and so many younger families coming up here that the library isn't bigger,” Mrs. Stephens said. “I'm surprised they don't have more, not only space but books and things.”
Mason Public Library Director Sarah Brown feels the pinch. Her circulation, or number of materials checked out each year, ballooned 229 percent between 1981 and 1994. The number of patrons during that time shot up by 325 percent.
In those years, her state allocation of library dollars has grown from $102,430 to $485,382. But Warren County is still at the bottom of the state funding list with $23.36 a person, well below the state average of $33.42.
“What is so ironic to me is that we know a high percentage of people using our facility have moved to our service district from the Greater Cincinnati area,” Ms. Brown said. “They are asking for the same services they have been able to rely on through the Cincinnati, Hamilton County libraries.”
To keep up with growing demand, the library opened Sundays and extended its hours two years ago. The library is building a 7,000-square-foot addition with $190,000 raised through corporate and private grants, budget cuts and book sales.
“The last five or six years, we've put a large tent on our lawn because we long ago outgrew our meeting room,” Ms. Brown said.
Now the library needs $200,000 more to furnish the addition and install a bank of computers for children. Ms. Brown also would like to bring in writers and performers that her patrons have been asking for — and more books.
“The demand for the newest fiction and nonfiction never stops,” she said.
The resource crisis is the same in other Warren County libraries.
The bookshelves at the Springboro branch of the Franklin Public Library are so packed that patrons struggle to remove books.
The number of materials checked out in 1997 at the Springboro branch — 177,051 — is 3,000 more than at Franklin's main library, but the building is half the size.
The Springboro library had become so crowded and noisy that a resident donated money for the library to build a study room in the back.
“We desperately need more space for computers and catalogs,” said Mary Novak, director of the Franklin Public Library. “If we were bigger and had the space to put things, I'm predicting our circulation would go up. We could actually get the books we want off the shelves.”
The situation is not much better in Butler and Clermont counties.
West Chester has one library that serves Union and Liberty townships and portions of Monroe. Residents of Mason, Sharonville and Fairfield use it, too.
Ky., Indiana perspective
The problems of growth and funding are seen in Indiana and Kentucky, too, though for different reasons.
Public libraries in both states are funded primarily through local property taxes. The rest comes from library fees, state funds and grants. The method has pitted residents against librarians in Indiana.
Indiana's state legislature froze the amount by which property taxes could grow in the 1980s. So in counties where population is growing faster than the money raised in taxes, libraries are not getting what's due them, said Martha Roblee, associate director for library development at the Indiana State Library.
In Kentucky, some money for libraries comes from property taxes and taxes on motor vehicle sales. But librarians are afraid the state might do away with the tax, said Phil Carrico, director of the Campbell County Public Library.
Librarians worked hard in 1998 to get the state to increase its contribution to libraries, which increased to $1 per person in 1998 compared to 80 cents per person in 1997, when Ohio gave an average of $33.42 per person to libraries.
With all of the library's income factored in, Campbell County Public Library gets $17.33 per person.
Back in Middletown, Mr. Bean has tried unsuccessfully for years to change Ohio's formula. He wants the formula to increase the annual share of library money for suburban counties at a faster rate than the share to counties surrounding Cincinnati and Cleveland.
Like other librarians, Mr. Bean praised the state for its overall library funding, one of the best in the country.
Reports show that Ohio ranks only behind New York in the amount of operating money spent on public libraries, providing 76 percent of library funding for its counties.
But there are flaws, Mr. Bean said.
“We think the state has treated public libraries very well,” Mr. Bean said. “It's the distribution formula that's the problem.”
Another fistfight ahead?
Thirteen years ago, Ohio's General Assembly changed the method in which state dollars flow to county library systems.
The pre-1986 formula dates back to the 1930s and was based on the amount of “intangibles” taxes collect ed in each county. It was a tax on money made from investments, like stocks and bonds.
That formula placed large, urban counties with thousands of stockholders at an advantage over small, poorer ones.
The new financing method in 1986 was supposed to be more fair. It was based on state income taxes, which experts say is more representative of population levels. Also, the new formula provided extra money to some of the counties at the bottom of the funding list to help them catch up to the state average.
But there were problems with the new formula. When it went into effect, the large urban library systems were guaranteed that their previous levels of funding would not be reduced. The idea was to protect the systems already in place. However, it limited the amount of money the state could redistribute to growing counties.
Also, state legislators did not foresee the explosion of growth in suburban counties. The new formula, most admit, cannot respond to the new landscape fast enough.
The formula may not be perfect, Sen. Finan said, but opening it up for discussion could set off political battles well beyond the libraries. Local governments might try to take library money for other projects, such as roads. Either way it might go, Sen. Finan said, there is only so much money now available.
Well-established urban library systems should not be penalized for their large share of library funds, said Robert Stonestreet, former director of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County who retired from his position at the end of December after about seven years.
Greater Cincinnati's library system enjoys a certain funding level because Hamilton County had for years aggressively collected the investment, or intangibles, tax, the pre-1986 method of funding libraries.
Virtually all of the money for the downtown library — including its new 165,000-square-foot addition that includes the airy Children's Learning Center — and the county system's 41 branches comes from the state. The library has no bonds or tax levies.
And Mr. Stonestreet said the library needs every penny it receives. The downtown library is a reference backup for the entire state, meaning it will research information other libraries cannot find.
The system also ranks first in the nation in circulation per person, according to the 1997-98 Ohio Almanac. Hamilton County residents each checked out an average of 13.5 items in 1995. It's also the second busiest library system in the country, behind only Queens in New York.
“Maybe the overall answer would be additional money for libraries period rather than money from Cincinnati or Cleveland or Columbus going to the outlying areas,” Mr. Stonestreet said.
Reluctant to change
While parents remain united in frustration over library resources, librarians in suburban counties are divided about what to do with the funding formula.
Sonia Long is one of them. As director of the Clermont County Public Library, she considers herself lucky, even though roofs are leaking and there's a shortage of parking.
Clermont County, the state's sixth fastest-growing county, gets $24.29 a person from the state, which ranks 85th among 88 counties. The library district has relied on a library levy passed in 1986 to build five more branches, bringing its total to 10. Now it needs money to stock them.
Still, Ms. Long said, Ohio is better off than many states. She worries about losing money by asking for more.
“Yes, the funding is not as fair as perhaps it could be, but the funding is very good,” Ms. Long said.
Lynda Murray, director of government relations for the Ohio Library Council, said the majority of the members of the library trade association does not want to change the formula. The council held public hearings and mailed letters throughout 1996 to get a consensus on the controversial formula.
Trish Ebbatson, director of the Delaware County Public Library, was part of a committee three years ago formed to look into the formula and suggest changes to the Ohio Library Council. The committee's suggestion to increase funding for suburban counties was not popular with council leaders.
“They felt there were some political realities to deal with that were not in the best interest of libraries,” Ms. Ebbatson said. “The large libraries would have lost some funding in any changing.”
In the absence of enough state money, her library district seeks private donations and endowments. Residents passed a bond issue in 1990 to pay for more buildings.
Brown County has actually improved under the 1986 formula, according to Lynn Book, director of the Brown County Public Library. As the seventh-fastest growing county, it ranks 83rd among Ohio's 88 counties in library funding.
“I think we're better off now than we would have been,” Ms. Book said. “It's a good situation for us and I'd like to see it stay this way.”
Inequities remain
But parents in suburban counties say the situation must change.
Barbara Riemer of West Chester tried to help her 10-year-old daughter write a research paper more than a year ago on the American Indian known as Little Turtle. The only thing the Union Township branch of the Middletown Public Library offered were two children's books on the subject dating to the 1950s, she said.
“It's crowded, it's noisy, and if you don't come in just when they assign a project, you can't find the material,” Mrs. Riemer said.
As her daughter, Elizabeth, and 9-year-old brother David get older, Mrs. Riemer wonders how she'll pay for a computer and other resources if the library can't. “I'm a widow, and I don't have access to a lot.”
The library, she said, is supposed to even the playing field, to provide resources for everyone.
Libraries, in Mrs. Riemer's view, are supposed to be about “equality.”
The struggle for funds in such suburban counties as Butler, Warren and Clermont counties, is instead, Mrs. Riemer said, about the “haves and the have-nots.”
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