At its October meeting Pierce County Library System’s Board of Trustees will discuss a national budget award, the 2014 budget, Fife Pierce County Library improvements, and other issues. The Board of Trustees will meet at the Library’s Processing and Administrative Center, 3005 112th St. E., in Tacoma, on Wednesday, Oct. 16, from 3:30 to 6 p.m.
National budget award
The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) presented Pierce County Library System with the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for its 2013 budget. The GFOA used a variety of criteria to determine the merits of local governments’ budgets including the overall structure of the budget document, descriptions and accounting for how an organization plans to spend its money, as well as recordings of how an organization spent its money. Pierce County Library earned the highest rating of “outstanding” in many categories including strategic goals and strategies, descriptions of funding plans, capital expenditures, and goal setting.
2014 Budget
Managers will present proposals to address a $1.1 million budget shortfall in the Library’s projected $25,654,035 budget for 2014. The shortfall is primarily due to expenditures exceeding property tax revenue. The Library’s funding priorities include: maintain services funded by voters from a 2006 tax levy; be good stewards of taxpayers’ investment; provide up-to-date and future-oriented services; and build a base of customers for the future. The Library will close the $1.1 million budget shortfall through cost savings, efficiencies, a reduction in capital funding, and other adjustments to balance the budget without any decreases to services.
Fife Library improvements
Library customers now have more convenient access to Fife Pierce County Library. A parking lot improvement project increased the number of parking spaces, added a turnaround to ease congestion experienced during peak times of library usage, and added drought-tolerant landscaping to the area.
Pierce County Library’s 18 locations and online library bring people together, enrich lives and provide children and adults with opportunities to learn. Pierce County Library is the fourth largest library system in the state, serving 555,000 people.
