Scott Williams, swilliams@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Scott Williams Terry Wiley, of Clintonville, examines books at the Shawano City-County Library in downtown Shawano.
Leader Photo by Scott Williams With branches in six communities, the Shawano City-County Library has more than 20,000 library card holders countywide.
Shawano County is feeling a bit of sticker shock after getting billed because of residents using public libraries outside the county.
Bills totaling $141,932 from libraries in Green Bay and elsewhere have prompted county officials to seek legislative changes to the state’s library funding formula.
“It is a travesty,” Administrative Coordinator Brent Miller wrote in a recent memo to state lawmakers.
Because of library patrons crossing county lines, Shawano County has received bills from the library systems in Brown, Outagamie, Waupaca and Langlade counties.
Although such cross-border library borrowing is nothing new, this is the first time that surrounding library systems have responded by sending Shawano County a bill. Those neighboring library administrators say the system is reasonable.
“We think it’s fair and equitable,” said Gerri Moeller, director of the Outagamie Waupaca Library System, which is asking Shawano County to pay $75,478. Brown County is seeking $58,479, while Langlade County is asking for another $7,975.
Without such compensation, Moeller said, her taxpayers would be unfairly paying for library services that Shawano County residents can access for free just by driving across the border in places such as Marion and Clintonville.
Shawano County could send the same sort of bill to Outagamie Waupaca library administrators. But the bill would be for a minimal amount, because few residents from those areas use libraries in Shawano County.
The Shawano City-County Library operates branches in Bonduel, Birnamwood, Mattoon, Tigerton and Wittenberg. The system operates on a yearly budget of about $600,000, which is funded about 80 percent by the county and 20 percent by the city of Shawano.
Kristie Hauer, director of the library system, said having to reimburse the neighboring library systems would put a severe strain on her organization’s finances. Officials are just starting to consider their options for addressing the complex funding formula issue, Hauer said.
“It’s very complicated, and it’s very frustrating, too,” she said.
State law covering public libraries was changed in 2006 to allow certain types of library systems to collect payments from neighbors because of the cross-borrowing phenomenon. Specifically exempt from the payments requests are the Brown County library network and others in which residents countywide are taxed uniformly to support their libraries.
Shawano County’s city-county system is similar enough to that arrangement that no neighboring systems previously billed the county. During a recent re-examination of the funding formula, state officials determined that Shawano County is not exempt from cross-border payment demands.
That means that the county will be billed whenever an outside library is patronized by any resident of Shawano County, except those who live in the city of Shawano.
Brown County library executive director Brian Simons said that while the formula might be difficult to understand, he said it correctly prevents people in Brown County from being taxed to provide free services to Shawano County residents. Simons voiced empathy for Shawano County officials facing new costs at a time of tight finances.
“I get how it is a big impact on them,” he said. “I sympathize with them.”
Outagamie Waupaca library officials even trimmed their payment request by more than $20,000 to ease the burden on Shawano County.
The issue is most prevalent in border communities such as Pulaski and Marion, where residents either must drive a long distance to one of the Shawano County’s libraries or cross the border and use a neighboring county’s library.
In his plea to state lawmakers, Miller pointed out that many of those residents also pay taxes to a public school district that extends into the neighboring county. Those residents, he contends, are facing double taxation because of the demand for library cross-borrowing payments in addition to school taxes.
Miller warned state lawmakers that the issue could force Shawano County to deplete its funds or cut services.
“This cannot be the reasonable intent of these laws,” he wrote. “No reasonable legislator would anticipate or vote for a law that serves to unfairly punish small counties.”
