Southeastern News Online May, 2004 Vol. 2  No. 1

Forecast Budget Deficit...Board Decisions

During the last four meetings of the SENYLRC Board of Trustees, board members have been discussing options to address a rather large forecasted budget deficit for the new fiscal year starting July 1. SENYLRC and the board are facing a proposed 5% reduction in state aid to the general operating budget as proposed by Governor Pataki plus very significant expenditure increases for health insurance and NYS Retirement.

The Board has also been exploring the option to purchase or build a new facility for SENYLRC’s office and meeting rooms. This has been a project for at least 3 years. The ultimate goal was to cap office space costs for the long term.

In the last meeting held in April, the Board unanimously came to two major decisions. After considering a myriad of options to increase revenue and reduce expenditures, (service fees, dues increase, program elimination, etc), the Board decided not to make such major programmatic changes but instead conduct a strategic planning initiative with the membership in the up coming new year. To help alleviate part of the projected deficit, the board decided to reduce one full-time librarian’s position to half time. Beginning July 1, Patricia Carroll-Mathes will become the half time Hospital Library Services Manager; her previous responsibilities with the emerging Hudson Valley Heritage Digital program will be absorbed by other Council staff.

In another decision to realize additional revenue, the board eliminated the cap on SENYLRC’s 2% consortial database surcharge. This surcharge was capped at $400 per library last year. Even with this surcharge, licensing libraries are still realizing significant savings as a result of participating in SENYLRC’s group licensing arrangements. The Board also agreed to established as previously planned a modest sliding fee (based on title count) for the new SENYLRC-hosted online public access service (OPAC) offered to hospital and special libraries.

The board also realized the need to cover the projected deficit by using some of SENYLRC’s fund reserve, but the amount of the deficit will not be as great as projected in January, assuming the proposed 5% state aid reduction is rejected by the NYS legislature as is now anticipated.

The Board also voted to no longer pursue acquiring a SENYLRC-owned building. The real estate and building costs (which are constantly rising) were determined to be too high for the space required by the Council. Even with a commercial mortgage, the amount of money needed from fund reserve to cover project costs -- both “hard” (building) and “soft” (closing, legal fees, etc.) -- would have left the organization in an uncertain financial position. In order to control the increasing costs for office space, SENYLRC is now pursuing long term leasing options. Our current lease expires October 31, 2004, so a decision regarding SENYLRC’s headquarters will be made soon.

By John Shaloiko, Executive Director

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