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Highland staff recommends $417,000 library payback; council weighs small property-tax option to sustain services
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Summary
City staff proposed returning about $417,000 in motor-vehicle revenue to the Highland Library fund and outlined an optional $30-per-home annual property-tax increase to sustain additional library staffing and services; council asked for public education and one-on-one direction before decisions.
City staff presented a tentative fiscal-year budget that includes a proposed transfer of roughly $417,000 from the general fund to the library fund to correct a 10-year allocation error in motor-vehicle revenue. Erin (City staff presenter) told the council that staff’s top budget priority from the recent retreat was to repay the library fund and that the money could be used as a principal to generate interest for ongoing library needs.
The staff memo described two implementation choices: place the funds into the library fund as a quasi-endowment (spend only interest) or transfer smaller annual amounts over multiple years to reduce the appearance of a large reserve. The proposal also includes an optional property-tax increase averaged at $30 per home per year (about $2.50 per month) intended to convert one part-time library position to full time and add an additional part-time assistant to handle increased workload from the TLC interlibrary consortium and rising digital-service costs.
Karen (library representative) described the operational pressures driving the request: the TLC consortium has expanded the library’s catalog and services, creating about 40 additional staff hours of work per week and more than 2,000 monthly item transfers; Libby digital circulation jumped to 111,000 checkouts last year and the library’s Libby subscription now costs about $10,000 annually. Staff said they had estimated the property-tax increase to fund the additional personnel and the Libby baseline.
Council members asked how the payback would be perceived by taxpayers if the city later sought a property-tax increase. Councilmember Scott warned the optics of adding new library revenue while holding a large reserve; staff responded that they could phase the transfer and run public education events (town halls/’roadshows’) to explain the difference between one-time reimbursement and ongoing revenue needs. Staff committed to providing the additional detail requested by council, including page references in the budget packet, corrected line-item salary math, and alternative scenarios for spreading the payback.
The council did not take a formal vote on the library payback or a tax increase at the work session; staff scheduled one-on-one meetings and a public open house to gather direction before the tentative-adoption and truth-in-taxation deadlines.
