Dearborn Library Commission Chair Marcel Pultorak (left) speaks at the May 10 special city council meeting, called to discuss a library millage renewal, as Library Director Maryanne Bartles listens.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – Faced with a 4 p.m. May 11 submission deadline, the City Council met May 10 to approve placing a library millage renewal on the Aug. 3 primary election ballot.
The 1 mill, six-year renewal would offset the cost of providing Dearborn library services. It would generate about $3.7 million annually, which represents nearly 60 percent of the library’s operating budget.
If voters do not renew the millage, the city would lose approximately $700,000 in state funding annually, and significant reductions to the facilities, materials, programing and services would occur.
Library Director Maryanne Bartles said that in 2011, voters approved a 10-year, 1 mill library millage, for which the library is seeking renewal by the voters.
“It is critical to the success of the library,” she said. “The decision was to go with the August primary, so if it did not pass, then we would have the opportunity to figure out what we were going to do without that one mill.”
Bartles said it would be the only millage on the August ballot, which would represent the library’s best opportunity for passage.
She said the library does not receive any of its budget from the city’s general fund.
“But, in all transparency, the council has generously levied an additional 0.69 mills to support the library,” Bartles said. “The way that the Dearborn Public Library was created, under library law, the only opportunities we have is for the maximum of one mill to be voted by the public, and the council can levy up to one mill without a vote of the public.”
She said the council’s additional mill is reconsidered each year, during the budget cycle.
Bartles said other area libraries are set up differently, and many have a much higher millage rate.
Library Commission Chairman Marcel Pultorak said that if the city wants a library system, the millage needs to pass.
He said in the past, the city had state-shared revenue, and city revenue was not impacted by the Headlee Amendment (which limits tax revenue), and Proposal A (which revamped school funding), both of which cap the growth of assessments.
“We are in a different world now, and I don’t know what is going to happen,” Pultorak said. “The reality is, the Michigan method of financing willful government is broken. It doesn’t work.”
He said if the mill is not renewed, it will cripple the library system, because the system has $3.3 million of non-discretionary expenditures.
Councilman Robert Abraham said if residents want to keep Dearborn as a community that is distinguished among its neighbors, the city needs to continue to provide rich and valuable services to everyone.
“People do want to buy homes here,” he said. “It is hard to find a home that is on the market for more than two or three days in Dearborn. We are not perfect, and there is room for improvement, and I think we can be more efficient with our tax dollars, but I do think Dearborn is in high demand with people.
“They like our culture, they like our diversity, they like our service base, and they love our police and fire, and I believe our library was fifth in that survey. I think the library finished in front of recreation.”
Bartles said the library goes back and forth in survey popularity with Parks and Recreation.