Library Gets Budget Boost

Wednesday, February 22, 2012 07:07 PM

Prince George, B.C. – The Prince George Public Library has won it’s push to have the City of Prince George boost its budget by a little over $50 thousand dollars. Boosting the budget will add another .06% to the tax levy, bringing it to a 3.23% increase.

The library had developed a budget, and only recently learned it would have to revise that plan, a revision it was not prepared to deal with on short notice.

Chief Librarian Allan Wilson says Prince George gets the least amount of funding of libraries throughout the region, at 40.26 per capita. McBride, Valemount and Mackenzie all receive much more, in the $50 to $60 dollar per capita range.

Wilson says provincially, B.C. is well behind other provinces providing about $2.20 per capita, compared to $8.00 in Saskatchewan and $6.00 in Ontario.

Prince George residents do value the library, ranking it second among services it is most pleased with, next only to fire fighting services in the recent Quality of Life Satisfaction Survey.

While Councillor Dave Wilbur moved that the budget be boosted by $50 thousand, Mayor Shari Green led off the discussion on the motion saying she would not support the increase, she would support status quo. Councillor Kohler also said he could not support the extra expenditure.

Councillor Stolz supported the motion, as did Councillors Krause, Frizzell, Skakun and Hall. as Councillor Lyn Hall also suggested the Library look at possible redundancies in services which could be offered by City Hall.

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Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 07:07 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: middle finger on February 22 2012 7:37 PM

From the PG public library website:
Staff- 1 chief librarian
1 public service manager
2 supervisors
6 coordinators
5 librarians
They are well coordinated.

Posted by: Palopu on February 22 2012 7:44 PM

Rather interesting that they would compare us to Mcbride, Valemount, and MacKenzie, all towns with a very small, population, and all located in the Regional District.

Usually we completely ignore these communitys, and compare ourselves to Nanaimo, Kamloops, Kelowna, etc;

Perhaps the Library should get on their computers and look up the definition of the economies of scale.

Posted by: Chester on February 22 2012 10:24 PM

Unable to revise their budget plan on short notice? Common, the library is not an essential service. If they can't cut $50,000 from their budget, they have bigger problems. Nobody wants to make any tough decisions. (and take the responsibility for them)

Posted by: Mitch2 on February 22 2012 11:51 PM

The mayor "lead off the discussion" on the motion? Huh, usually the mayor speaks last. She must have been trying to tell her boys how they should vote. It appears they weren't listening.

Posted by: gus on February 23 2012 12:14 AM

I agree Palopu.

----------------------------------
I notice that Green has lead the discussion on several occasions. She is taking a page from Kinsley's book. He did that frequently.

Posted by: gus on February 23 2012 12:21 AM

"Councillor Kohler"

Koehler... Koehler ... Koehler ....

actually it is even more correct to worte it
Köhler .....Köhler........Köhler

Posted by: gus on February 23 2012 12:21 AM

worte = write .... :-(

Posted by: twobit50 on February 23 2012 10:01 AM

Correct fact-checking would have done a world of good before the posting of this article.

The library is NOT receiving an additional $50,000 from the City of Prince George. The additional $50,000 is actually coming from the Regional District, which has recognized that they have indeed been underfunding the library for years. Therefore, this does not affect taxes collected by the city directly, as their contribution to the library is exactly as it was in 2011.