MY TURN: CLN needs competent trustees
In a letter to the editor published Sept. 22, Suzanne Kearney blamed the prior board of trustees for the Community Library Network’s current budget deficit, alleging — without evidence — that they created a $200,000 shortfall. Kearney then points to this predicament to justify the dramatic and drastic cuts the current CLN trustees have made to employee positions, hours and acquisitions. This narrative is false and represents simply another attempt to turn Meyer and McCrea into proverbial political scapegoats.
The facts to counter Kearney’s misrepresentation are publicly available and easily verifiable on CLN’s website: https://communitylibrary.net/board/. At the end of the 2023 fiscal year (covering 10/1/22 to 9/30/23), the district did not have a budget deficit or shortfall. In fact, the opposite is true. Revenues exceeded expenses by $16,376.32. Perhaps then, Kearney meant to reference the FY24 budget, which, like all annual budgets, would be formulated by the public agency over the summer months and then adopted after a public budget hearing historically held during the month of August.
When the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC)-approved board assumed control in June 2023, they faced the task of setting the budget. The administration team prepared a draft which included both needs and wants for the coming year, including continuing to fund raises to staff so their salaries better aligned with cost-of-living increases. Like other taxing agencies, CLN has the authority to implement a 3% annual tax increase. Inexplicably, the new board chose to make cuts and, further, turned down revenue sources that would not have had any detrimental impact to taxpayers.
The CLN majority trustees purposefully refused to hear or even consider learning about Urban Renewal District (URD) funds. This money is generated through the area’s growth, and because taxes are collected in arrears, URD revenue lags many years behind service delivery. Stated more explicitly, CLN has served an increasing population for years while waiting patiently (along with other taxing districts in the designated URD) for the payoff in increased tax revenues to come in. When the delayed revenue payoff became available, the CLN majority deprived the district of dollars already collected for costs of services CLN had already delivered for years. While Hanley and Plass explained their refusal to accept this money was meant to adhere to a campaign promise not to raise future taxes, their action simply evidences how little they understand about the generation of tax revenue. Consequently, CLN lost $81,394 in URD New Construction Growth (CLN Minutes 8/8/23).
The CLN majority voted against taking any percentage increase, which resulted in a loss of $149,916 in additional funds (CLN Minutes 7/7/23; budget summary 9/15/23). Last, they accepted $42,256 in URD closure funds, but offset this “gain” by lowering the tax levy in a commensurate amount, thereby netting zero gain for the district (CLN budget summary 9/15/23) and causing a corresponding ripple effect that will be felt for years to come. Once these items are added together — $81,394 + $149,916 + $42,256 — and you get $273,766, far more than the alleged $200,000 deficit and attributable entirely to the trustees who took office in June 2023.
Despite overwhelming public support for a tax increase (90 out of 108 emails received, 16 of 16 speakers in favor), the current board turned down additional revenue (CLN minutes 8/10/23, budget summary 9/15/23). The CLN trustees’ decisions regarding the FY24 budget were ill-considered and uninformed. Their actions directly resulted in shortfalls in CLN’s projected FY25 revenues (and frankly those shortfalls were exacerbated by many other poor governance decisions and completely avoidable budget overruns). Blaming others serves only to obscure the abysmal performance of the KCRCC rated and vetted trustees and to shield their fiscal mismanagement from scrutiny. In two years of budgeting, in which they have overruled the desires of the taxpayers they were elected to serve, CLN deserves more competent and accountable trustees.
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Steve and Janet Funk are Coeur d’Alene residents.