Budget Time

It's that most wonderful time of the year - budget preparation time! In the public library world, it seems that the CEOs and administration staff are more like alchemists. We mix and move money around so we can get to the municipality's increase target. Find a bit of money here because we have a new staff member at a lower level of the pay grid or there because the cost of a database has gone down. Or we can raise fines by $0.05 a day or initiate a new service that will generate income. We will have both a new council and a new board in 2015. All will be ready to do the right thing by keeping taxes down. It will be a challenge to meet everyone's expectations for quality library service at a low cost. How is your budget preparation going?