The Hellertown and Bethlehem Public Library Budgets: A Comparison

There has been about whether Lower Saucon Township should continue to be a part of the Bethlehem Area Public Library (BAPL) system, if they should switch to join with the , or if there is some . The pros and cons of this decision are being studied at length by the , which is expected to issue a formal recommendation to township officials by the summer of 2012.

One of the major issues task force members are examining is how BAPL is utilizing , and whether or not the Bethlehem library is the most cost effective option in these difficult economic times.

Comparing the budgets of the Bethlehem and Hellertown libraries can be difficult, because there is a large discrepancy between the amounts of money available to each library. However, breaking the budget down into percentages provides an interesting idea of which aspects of service the libraries are focusing on.

The most noticeable difference in their budgets is in the amount of money allocated for staffing costs. BAPL currently spends 55 percent of its annual budget on salaries and wages and 12 percent on employee benefits. If you include pensions and retirement costs, the total spent on employees is 75.7 percent of their budget (they currently employ 52 staff members, about half of whom are full-time). This amount is in contrast to HAPL, which spends 44 percent of its annual budget on salaries and does not provide employee benefits. It should be noted, however, that the HAPL has just three employees: one full-time and two part-time. Bethlehem library officials did look into reducing staffing costs in 2012, and they reduced employee benefit costs by about $30,000, which means staff will be paying slightly more out-of-pocket.

The next biggest difference in budgeting is in the amount spent on actual library materials. The state mandates that a minimum of 12 percent of a public library's annual budget be spent on improving its collection, and BAPL fulfilled this requirement to the dollar in its latest budget, coming in at exactly 12 percent. HAPL, however, allocated 20 percent of its budget toward library materials.

Hellertown library director Robin Rotherham said that funding the purchase of new materials is one of the major budgetary challenges she faces each year.

“It’s a major challenge to try to provide good library services, which I think is reflected in our materials budget,” she pointed out.

Rotherham also mentioned that in 2012 some of HAPL's materials budget will go toward providing more e-books and increasing the selection of digital books available for kids and teens. This may prove to be even more challenging than expected, in light of a recent announcement that the Penguin Group will join the list of major publishers who have pulled their e-books from library lending.

Janet Fricker, director of the BAPL, said the library opted to spend the minimum amount on materials in 2012 because of state aid concerns.

“If you spend over 12 percent, you have to spend at least that much the following year or risk losing state aid,” she said.

Another difference in the two library budgets relates to how each library participates in fundraising and how those funds are then allotted.

BAPL includes less than three percent of its fundraising yield as part of its yearly budget, however the library uses fundraisers to raise money for specific projects outside of its budget, such as the Room to Grow campaign, which is raising money to expand the children’s space and move it to the second floor of the Main Library. So far BAPL has raised $1.5 million towards that goal. HAPL instead relies on fundraising as part of its operating budget and has projected that 16 percent of its 2012 funding will be related to fundraising projects, allowing it to provide services without increasing the tax burden unnecessarily.

Fricker acknowledged that one of the major budgeting challenges is that "the cost of things keeps going up--healthcare, energy, etc.--but the funding is not going up proportionally."

"People are really resistant to having increases in paying for libraries," she said.

Fricker also mentioned BAPL's disappointment over the fact that the Borough of  next year.

"We’re very upset about it," she said. "We were told pretty assuredly by their (borough) manager that it wouldn’t have mattered how much we asked for, because they couldn’t afford to pay for library services. We didn’t raise our per capita (rate) for the first time in as long as I can remember."

"People think we raised our fees, but we didn’t," she added. "We went from (a per capita rate of) $17.55 to $17.03, but the increase in fees is because of the increase in population. I believe this is the first time in the library's history that we have lowered our fees, and we have done that because we know it’s difficult for people to meet these fees in difficult times."

The 2012 BAPL budget was formulated on the assumption that Freemansburg would continue to be a part of the library system, and the $44,000 that Freemansburg would have contributed as a member municipality is now going to come out of the library's contingency fund. This will leave the library less flexibility for dealing with any other unexpected expenses next year.

Fricker stated that the BAPL is very interested in having Freemansburg return to the library system in the future.

"If (they) were to come up with the funding or even a plan for funding, the board would be very interested in getting them back and doing whatever we can," she said. "Freemansburg is also part of the Bethlehem (Area) School District, and we hate to serve part of the school district but not all of it."

Rotherham observed that “ is doing everything they possibly can to support the public library."

"We’re very fortunate they've kept our funding equal this year, even though ," she said.

She also discussed the fact that Freemansburg was forced to withdraw from the BAPL system as a result of financial constraints.

“It’s very unfortunate the borough (of Freemansburg) chose not to support a library for the upcoming year," she said.

Rotherham said an online petition has been started to encourage Freemansburg to continue to be a part of the BAPL system.

Hellertown is unable to absorb them into its library system because the boroughs are not contiguous.

Hellertown Area Public Library trustees are not unsympathetic to the problems faced by Freemansburg, however, and recently voted to allow not only Freemansburg residents, but also residents of other municipalities without libraries to be able to purchase cards that will allow them to use the HAPL.

These cards would not allow for use of the Access PA program, so cardholders would only be able to use Hellertown’s library, and the decision is still tentative and requires approval from other officials.

The HAPL 2012 budget can be viewed in entirety here.

The BAPL 2012 budget can be viewed by clicking on the uploaded images attached to this story.