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State library warns geospatial revenue decline threatens Montana State Reference Network rollout
Summary
State librarian Jenny Stapp told the legislature’s Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education that declines in state special revenues will create a near-term shortfall for the Montana State Reference Network, and urged committee members to consider whether to backfill missing cash to sustain the rollout and staffing.
State Librarian Jenny Stapp told the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education that the Montana State Reference Network faces funding shortfalls after unexpected declines in the geospatial information account.
Stapp said the committee’s fiscal materials and the legislative fiscal analyst’s HJ 2 show an expected drop in revenue for the library’s accounts of about 14% in fiscal 2025, 7% in 2026 and 6% in 2027. “That information shows a decline, of 14% expected in 2025 and 7 percent expected in 2026 and about 6% expected in 2027,” Stapp said. She told the committee that the drop has reduced the cash available to hire a technical staff position and to sustain early operations of the reference network.
The network was authorized by Senate Bill 60 in 2023, Stapp said, and the fiscal note at passage anticipated roughly $500,000 per year in state special revenue from the geospatial information account as usership grew. Stapp said the library had counted on that funding to make the network self-sustaining by 2029. “When we passed Senate Bill 60 in 2023… we anticipated having somewhere around a million dollars over the course of the next several years to be able to offset those costs,” she said.
Committee members pressed for more detail. Representative Matthews asked for a program-by-program table showing which library programs would be affected if the revenues materialize as forecasted; Chair Beatty asked the library to provide precise shortfall figures and program impacts so the committee could consider whether to propose a general-fund backfill. Stapp said the library projects a near-term revenue gap of about $150,000 in the first year if subscriber growth and other assumptions hold and if the one-time MGF funds are not available. She also said filling an FTE to support the operator would add roughly $80,000 annually to operating costs; combining that with other operating costs would put annual operating needs “just shy of $470,000,” she said when summarizing the glide path.
Stapp told members that not all costs are being incurred immediately; for example, a planned tech position remains unfunded because the cash was not available to recruit and hire. “We were funded with 1 time, 1 time only appropriation from that geospatial information account, but the cash was not there to allow us to recruit for and fill that position,” she said. Committee members noted that not filling the tech position reduces the operator’s ability to grow subscribers.
Several lawmakers said staff should review the library’s special revenue accounts and available fund balances before proposing any appropriation changes. Vice Chair Fuller and Chair Beatty emphasized statutory limits on the use of special revenue accounts and said repurposing another special revenue account for the library would likely require statutory changes. The committee requested the library and the budget office provide clearer fund-balance schedules and a table tying specific programs to likely cuts if the projected revenue declines occur.
The committee did not take any formal action at the work session. Members said they would use the information to decide whether to sponsor committee-generated decision packages in advance of executive action in mid-February.
