The Orange County manager has released the proposed county budget, and one of the biggest proposed cuts is the elimination of funding for the Chapel Hill Public Library, over a two-year period. The county is paying $631,323 to the town in this fiscal year, and the budget proposes to cut that in half for the next fiscal year (beginning July 1), and eliminate it for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2027.
The manager points to the new Carrboro branch library as the reason for the reduction:
The County has made payments to the Town of Chapel Hill to compensate for County residents’ use of the Chapel Hill Library. The payment was conceived during a time when the County and the Town were seeking interoperability. Since that time, the County has constructed the Southern Branch Library at the Drakeford Building in Carrboro. The cost of operating the Southern Branch facility is recommended to be $943,221 annually excluding debt service on the portion of the facility occupied by the Library.
The Southern Branch Library is seeing an average of 10,000 visitors per month, and 2,398 or 31% of cardholders are Chapel Hill residents, 4,213 or 54% are Carrboro residents, and the remaining 1,122 or 15% reside elsewhere in Orange County or in surrounding counties with reciprocal agreements with Orange County. Given the robust library services being offered in Southern Orange County, the budget includes a two-year phase out of the payment to the Town of Chapel Hill. The resulting reduction in the General Fund is $310,662. The Budget also reduces the $700 payment to the City of Mebane for library services.
We love the new southern branch library. “Robust,” though? The scope of services offered in the Carrboro library pales in comparison to what’s available at the Chapel Hill Public Library.
The Friends of Chapel Hill Public Library has provided some additional context on its web site, noting that the county’s funding currently supports 72% of the library’s operating budget, and about 12.5% of the library’s overall budget (including personnel costs). While that seems like a lot, town residents account for about 42% of the County’s population, and all county residents who live outside of town have the opportunity to check out books and otherwise take advantage of the Chapel Hill Public Library’s activities free of charge, for a fraction of the cost to operate the library.
The County will host budget information sessions, beginning next week, at the Whitted Human Services Center on May 14, virtually on May 20, and at the Southern Human Services Building in Chapel Hill on May 21, all at 6 pm.