Budget Message
SILVER FALLS LIBRARY DISTRICT
BUDGET MESSAGE
Fiscal Year 2024-2025
OVERVIEW:
The Silver Falls Library District has only one fund – the General Fund – as defined by Oregon budget law. Most budget requirements are allocated to one Organizational Unit – Library Services – with the remaining unallocated requirements consisting of the Operating Contingency, the Unappropriated Ending Fund Balance, and unappropriated monies Reserved for Future Expenditures.
The District's beginning and ending fund balances are unrestricted, with the only restricted funds activity being the management of Oregon Ready-to-Read grant monies from the State Library of Oregon, which are received and expended within the same fiscal year.
The proposed 2024-2025 budget utilizes anticipated annual revenues consistent with prior years - and as projected by the data from Marion County Assessor’s Office - and it continues the District's plan to use the monies designated as Reserved for Future Expenditures. The District has been using the Reserved for Future Expenditures monies gradually over the past several years to address inevitable building maintenance issues, to replace aging equipment and furnishings, and to maintain the expanded service hours that were initiated in September 2012.
RESOURCES:
The services of the Silver Falls Library District are primarily funded by its permanent property tax levy of $0.5748 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation on the properties within its boundaries. There are several factors which affect the District's income from this levy.
The Current Year Property Tax amount levied on properties within the Silver Falls Library District for 2023-2024 increased approximately 3.8 % percent from the prior 2022-2023 fiscal year. The proposed budget assumes an average and typical increase for the coming fiscal year, of 4.03%. This estimate forecasts a tax revenue for the District of $1,083,785 based on the tax rate of $0.5748 on property assessed at $1,885,500,000 within District boundaries. While the revenue can be collected at a rate as high as 99%, the rate of return has been calculated conservatively at 94% for the current year tax resource amount of $1,018,758.
Income from Prior Year Property Taxes is close to the forecasted amount in the current fiscal year, with 94.2% of the anticipated $19,500 in revenue received as of this budget proposal. A slight increase is anticipated for the coming year, with the proposed budget for Prior Year Property Taxes at $20,375.
State Timber Lands income is variable and unpredictable. As such, State Timber Lands forecasting must necessarily remain conservative as these funds have been historically uneven since Oregon’s Timber production scaled down significantly in the 1980s. For the proposed budget, the projection is now at zero. The Marion County Assessor’s office advises that timber revenue should not be relied upon but, when distributed, could be used as windfall money to fund wish list projects or to cover unanticipated shortfalls from other revenue streams. Additionally, this line item is subject to claw back when the State finds that revenue from sales does not offset costs, such as happened within this fiscal year. The State Timber Lands payments for the current fiscal year are at 488% of projected budget compared to being at 19.8% of budget last year, and 54% of budget the year prior.
Foreclosure proceeds for the Tax Title Land Fund (i.e., foreclosure proceeds) are typically small. No income was budgeted for this revenue line in the current fiscal year, and none will be budgeted for the coming fiscal year. The last time the District received revenue for this line item was in 2021-2022 for $2,093. Like the State Timber Lands income, funds from this stream will be used for wish list projects, unanticipated shortfalls from other line items, or as carryover for the following budget year.
CCRLS (Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service) imposes taxes on properties within Polk, Yamhill, and Marion Counties at a rate of approximately $0.08 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. The purpose of CCRLS is to enhance cooperation between member libraries as they provide service to residents of the three counties to develop shared resources. The taxes levied by CCRLS fund CCRLS's staffing and operational expenses, provide courier service between the libraries, maintain a shared automated circulation system and online catalog, purchase shared electronic resources, and provide reimbursement funds to member libraries to support their direct services to residents of the area.
For the proposed budget year, the anticipated CCRLS Reimbursement has decreased by about 8.5% from $115,603 in the current year to $97,693. The District's CCRLS Reimbursement income is determined by a formula which factors in (1) the amount of income CCRLS receives from its levy on taxpayers within the Silver Falls Library District and (2) the District's circulation of library materials to CCRLS residents who live outside the boundaries of the Silver Falls Library District. The amount included in the proposed budget reflects the amount approved in the CCRLS 2024-2025 budget, but the actual amount received within a fiscal year may vary depending on the timing of the quarterly payments near the beginning or end of a particular fiscal year.
The State Aid Grant line is an estimate of the amount to be received in Ready-to-Read Grant funds, based on receipts so far in the current biennium. It is mirrored by a corresponding line in Requirements. Ready-to-Read Grant expenditures are limited to the amount which is actually received, and funds must be expended in their entirety. Their proposed usage must be approved by both the State Library and the Library Service District. The Ready-to-Read funding is based on demographic data of the number of 0-14 year-olds inside a public library’s service area.
The amounts in the remaining lines – Interest; Donations; and Fines and Fees – are based on the general pattern of receipts in prior years. Interest income is primarily from county-distributed tax funds deposited in the Local Government Investment Pool. The high interest rates of the prior fiscal year carried into the current one, setting new records for a second year. In April of 2023, interest rates from the Pool were at 3.75%, and since February of 2024, the rate has been at 5.2%. Earlier economic forecasts suggested that federal interest rates would drop multiple times within the 2024 calendar year but so far have not. As of this writing, our current year interest revenue is more than double our projection. The proposed budget has been adjusted from $12,000 to $22,000, over an 83% increase.
The current year allocation of $8,000 to the Fines and Fees line is based on monthly receipts. Now that the district receives payments via debit and credit cards both at the service counter and online, payments of fines and fees have increased. The amount for this line item will increase to $9,000 for the proposed budget, an increase of about 9%.
The District's Beginning Fund Balance includes the prior year's Unappropriated Ending Fund Balance, which allows the District to meet its financial obligations during the first four and a half months of the fiscal year before any of the current year's tax payments are received in mid-November.
Also included in the Beginning Fund Balance are those funds Reserved for Future Expenditures. These reserves were created in 2011, as a result of a $395,000 bequest from the estate of Inez Green, and they have been augmented occasionally by unexpected State Timber Lands revenue. These bequest monies are unrestricted.
This budget proposal assumes that the District will levy its full permanent rate of $0.5748 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation.
REQUIREMENTS:
Overview
Requirements for FY 2024-2025 are less than FY 2023-2024, a 1.3% overall decrease. In the budget before you, Personnel costs are flat. The Materials budget is 2% less than last year, and the Operations/Services budget decreased by 1.1%.
Personnel Services
The total Personnel Services category is flat for this budget, and FTE has been slightly reduced from 12.1 to 12.0. In July of the current budget year, it became apparent that the personnel budget had been undercalculated by $8,925. At the next meeting the board approved a resolution to move $9,000 from Reserved for Future Expenditures to Personnel Services.
In the proposed budget for 2024-2025, salary expenditures are flat and include a proposed 1% cost-of-living adjustment. The salary line also includes some funds for internships which receive matching or supplemental funds from Special Districts Association and from Willamette Workforce programs.
Workers Compensation costs for the District have remained stable. No increase in rates is expected.
The Social Security line includes the District's assessments for both Social Security and Medicare and is based on the relevant percentages of the Salaries line.
The amount budgeted for Group Health reflects the "not-to-exceed" rate increases announced by the District’s insurance providers for 2025, as well as current levels of staff participation. The rate change for Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance holders is 10%, with a 7.5% increase for the affiliated Delta Dental insurance. Vision insurance with VSP has increased 6%. Kaiser dental has a 0% rate increase, and Kaiser medical insurance has increased 10%. Benefit eligible staff have a choice for which insurance providers they utilize under the District’s contract with Citycounty Insurance Services (CIS).
The District's overall billing for the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) for the current biennium was 23.93% for Tiers 1 and 2, and 19.55% for the Oregon Public Service Retirement Plan (OPSRP).
Materials & Services
The total Materials and Services budget has decreased overall by around 2%.
Within the Materials section, the lines for Books and Audio-Visual remain relatively flat. This January, the board passed a budget resolution to accept a $5,000 grant from John H. Eldred Jr. Foundation for the purchase of additional youth services books. There is a slight increase in Periodicals as subscription prices have gone up. The Microforms line remains at zero as the last of The Silverton Appeal newspapers were microfilmed in 2022. For library programming, the overall allocation remains flat but with somewhat more funding going towards programs for youth than for adults.
Building Maintenance is significantly decreased for the proposed year, as the replacement of the flat roof on the original part of the library was completed in this current year. Over the past six years, the library has replaced aging HVAC systems as they fail. There are now three of the eight original HVAC units that are approaching thirty years of age, and the District is replacing them as they fail. As such, the Building Maintenance budget also reflects the anticipated replacement of another unit should one fail during the year. Repair and maintenance of plumbing and electrical systems are ongoing processes as the building systems age and experience the wear and tear of public use.
New this year are funds for potential parking lot upgrades and maintenance that are inclusive of asphalt repairs, paint-striping, improved exterior lighting, and parking signage. This is in anticipation of the City of Silverton partitioning the land tract that includes old City Hall, the Fischer building, the Library, and all city owned land and buildings from the south parking lot between the library and the Chamber building, down to the southernmost edge of the swimming pool property and creek. As of this writing, this is not a finalized decision, but funds have been budgeted in the event the District takes responsibility for additional parking spaces and grounds.
Line items that are flat include Advertising & Publishing, Water & Sewer, and Equipment Maintenance.
Line items that show a slight decrease include Miscellaneous and Election Expenses. The District will conduct elections for three board director seats in May of 2025 but the bill for elections is not received until the start of the fiscal year in July.
Office Supplies, Dues & Subscriptions, Telecommunications, Postage & Freight, Gas/Electricity, Conference & Training, Travel, Minor Equipment & Furnishings, Bookkeeping & Audit, Electronic Media, and Insurance have all increased somewhat due to rising costs of those goods and services. The Technical Services Supplies line is increased in anticipation of specialty supplies needed for readying our archival, closed stacks collection for public display and use.
Contingency
The amount in the Contingency line of the budget is for the purpose of appropriations, so that these funds would be readily available for transfer, by Board resolution, to the appropriate budget line for expenditure in the event of unforeseen expenses, such as the failure of multiple HVAC units in a year or other emergencies impacting library facilities or services. State law limits the amount that can be transferred from Contingency to 15% of the total appropriation in the original adopted budget’s operating fund, and these funds can only be transferred to an existing appropriation.
Other Requirements
The 2024-2025 proposed budget also includes two categories comprising unappropriated funds, which cannot be spent in the fiscal year without adoption of a supplemental budget or a declaration of emergency.
The first of these is Reserved for Future Expenditures. The funds in this line are primarily from bequest funds, as well as from receipt of State Timber Lands income, and from conservative fiscal management of available income. The existence of these funds has provided for added service hours, funded equipment purchases and cushioned the impact of PERS rate increases. The District intends to continue using the funds in this line for purposes related to both infrastructure maintenance and service enhancements.
Finally, the standard Unappropriated Ending Fund Balance reserves funds for meeting the financial needs of the District during the first third of each fiscal year – before that year's tax revenues begin to be received – without the use of a tax anticipation loan, which would incur interest and processing costs for the taxpayers. Funds are also maintained in this line to ensure coverage of the deductible amounts on the District's flood and earthquake insurance coverage, should there be major damage to the Library building and/or contents.
SUMMARY:
The intent of this proposed budget is to support current and developing programs and services for library users of all ages; to maintain and refresh the Library's materials collection, both physical and electronic; to plan for, implement, and support evolving technologies; and to provide for the maintenance, repair, and replacement, as needed of the Library's physical infrastructure elements.
The proposed budget calls for the District to levy property taxes at its permanent rate of $0.5748 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation.
BUDGET MESSAGE
Fiscal Year 2024-2025
OVERVIEW:
The Silver Falls Library District has only one fund – the General Fund – as defined by Oregon budget law. Most budget requirements are allocated to one Organizational Unit – Library Services – with the remaining unallocated requirements consisting of the Operating Contingency, the Unappropriated Ending Fund Balance, and unappropriated monies Reserved for Future Expenditures.
The District's beginning and ending fund balances are unrestricted, with the only restricted funds activity being the management of Oregon Ready-to-Read grant monies from the State Library of Oregon, which are received and expended within the same fiscal year.
The proposed 2024-2025 budget utilizes anticipated annual revenues consistent with prior years - and as projected by the data from Marion County Assessor’s Office - and it continues the District's plan to use the monies designated as Reserved for Future Expenditures. The District has been using the Reserved for Future Expenditures monies gradually over the past several years to address inevitable building maintenance issues, to replace aging equipment and furnishings, and to maintain the expanded service hours that were initiated in September 2012.
RESOURCES:
The services of the Silver Falls Library District are primarily funded by its permanent property tax levy of $0.5748 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation on the properties within its boundaries. There are several factors which affect the District's income from this levy.
- Oregon State legislation caps the potential increase in taxable assessed valuation on existing properties at 3% per year. Income increases can surpass that limit due to new construction in the District.
- Increases in property tax revenues for properties within the Urban Renewal District (URD) established by the City of Silverton in 2004 are used to fund those activities, rather than being distributed to other taxing entities, such as the Library District. Adjusted for inflation, the URD has resulted in approximately $250,000 of foregone revenue for the library over the course of 20 years.
- The maximum total amount allowed for all general government property tax levies on properties in the State of Oregon is $10.00 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation (Ballot Measure 5, passed 1990). The Library District levy is included in this limit. If the District's levy and the tax levies for other entities such as county or city government, fire or water districts, recreation districts, etc., total more than $10.00 per thousand of assessed valuation, the actual amount levied may be reduced on each levy in an established priority. This is known as compression. Currently the District is not under compression, although some properties may be affected at some point as new service districts are established or special operating levies are approved by voters. Conversely, negative effects of compression may be mitigated as new construction takes place within the District, and the new properties are added to the tax rolls.
The Current Year Property Tax amount levied on properties within the Silver Falls Library District for 2023-2024 increased approximately 3.8 % percent from the prior 2022-2023 fiscal year. The proposed budget assumes an average and typical increase for the coming fiscal year, of 4.03%. This estimate forecasts a tax revenue for the District of $1,083,785 based on the tax rate of $0.5748 on property assessed at $1,885,500,000 within District boundaries. While the revenue can be collected at a rate as high as 99%, the rate of return has been calculated conservatively at 94% for the current year tax resource amount of $1,018,758.
Income from Prior Year Property Taxes is close to the forecasted amount in the current fiscal year, with 94.2% of the anticipated $19,500 in revenue received as of this budget proposal. A slight increase is anticipated for the coming year, with the proposed budget for Prior Year Property Taxes at $20,375.
State Timber Lands income is variable and unpredictable. As such, State Timber Lands forecasting must necessarily remain conservative as these funds have been historically uneven since Oregon’s Timber production scaled down significantly in the 1980s. For the proposed budget, the projection is now at zero. The Marion County Assessor’s office advises that timber revenue should not be relied upon but, when distributed, could be used as windfall money to fund wish list projects or to cover unanticipated shortfalls from other revenue streams. Additionally, this line item is subject to claw back when the State finds that revenue from sales does not offset costs, such as happened within this fiscal year. The State Timber Lands payments for the current fiscal year are at 488% of projected budget compared to being at 19.8% of budget last year, and 54% of budget the year prior.
Foreclosure proceeds for the Tax Title Land Fund (i.e., foreclosure proceeds) are typically small. No income was budgeted for this revenue line in the current fiscal year, and none will be budgeted for the coming fiscal year. The last time the District received revenue for this line item was in 2021-2022 for $2,093. Like the State Timber Lands income, funds from this stream will be used for wish list projects, unanticipated shortfalls from other line items, or as carryover for the following budget year.
CCRLS (Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service) imposes taxes on properties within Polk, Yamhill, and Marion Counties at a rate of approximately $0.08 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. The purpose of CCRLS is to enhance cooperation between member libraries as they provide service to residents of the three counties to develop shared resources. The taxes levied by CCRLS fund CCRLS's staffing and operational expenses, provide courier service between the libraries, maintain a shared automated circulation system and online catalog, purchase shared electronic resources, and provide reimbursement funds to member libraries to support their direct services to residents of the area.
For the proposed budget year, the anticipated CCRLS Reimbursement has decreased by about 8.5% from $115,603 in the current year to $97,693. The District's CCRLS Reimbursement income is determined by a formula which factors in (1) the amount of income CCRLS receives from its levy on taxpayers within the Silver Falls Library District and (2) the District's circulation of library materials to CCRLS residents who live outside the boundaries of the Silver Falls Library District. The amount included in the proposed budget reflects the amount approved in the CCRLS 2024-2025 budget, but the actual amount received within a fiscal year may vary depending on the timing of the quarterly payments near the beginning or end of a particular fiscal year.
The State Aid Grant line is an estimate of the amount to be received in Ready-to-Read Grant funds, based on receipts so far in the current biennium. It is mirrored by a corresponding line in Requirements. Ready-to-Read Grant expenditures are limited to the amount which is actually received, and funds must be expended in their entirety. Their proposed usage must be approved by both the State Library and the Library Service District. The Ready-to-Read funding is based on demographic data of the number of 0-14 year-olds inside a public library’s service area.
The amounts in the remaining lines – Interest; Donations; and Fines and Fees – are based on the general pattern of receipts in prior years. Interest income is primarily from county-distributed tax funds deposited in the Local Government Investment Pool. The high interest rates of the prior fiscal year carried into the current one, setting new records for a second year. In April of 2023, interest rates from the Pool were at 3.75%, and since February of 2024, the rate has been at 5.2%. Earlier economic forecasts suggested that federal interest rates would drop multiple times within the 2024 calendar year but so far have not. As of this writing, our current year interest revenue is more than double our projection. The proposed budget has been adjusted from $12,000 to $22,000, over an 83% increase.
The current year allocation of $8,000 to the Fines and Fees line is based on monthly receipts. Now that the district receives payments via debit and credit cards both at the service counter and online, payments of fines and fees have increased. The amount for this line item will increase to $9,000 for the proposed budget, an increase of about 9%.
The District's Beginning Fund Balance includes the prior year's Unappropriated Ending Fund Balance, which allows the District to meet its financial obligations during the first four and a half months of the fiscal year before any of the current year's tax payments are received in mid-November.
Also included in the Beginning Fund Balance are those funds Reserved for Future Expenditures. These reserves were created in 2011, as a result of a $395,000 bequest from the estate of Inez Green, and they have been augmented occasionally by unexpected State Timber Lands revenue. These bequest monies are unrestricted.
This budget proposal assumes that the District will levy its full permanent rate of $0.5748 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation.
REQUIREMENTS:
Overview
Requirements for FY 2024-2025 are less than FY 2023-2024, a 1.3% overall decrease. In the budget before you, Personnel costs are flat. The Materials budget is 2% less than last year, and the Operations/Services budget decreased by 1.1%.
Personnel Services
The total Personnel Services category is flat for this budget, and FTE has been slightly reduced from 12.1 to 12.0. In July of the current budget year, it became apparent that the personnel budget had been undercalculated by $8,925. At the next meeting the board approved a resolution to move $9,000 from Reserved for Future Expenditures to Personnel Services.
In the proposed budget for 2024-2025, salary expenditures are flat and include a proposed 1% cost-of-living adjustment. The salary line also includes some funds for internships which receive matching or supplemental funds from Special Districts Association and from Willamette Workforce programs.
Workers Compensation costs for the District have remained stable. No increase in rates is expected.
The Social Security line includes the District's assessments for both Social Security and Medicare and is based on the relevant percentages of the Salaries line.
The amount budgeted for Group Health reflects the "not-to-exceed" rate increases announced by the District’s insurance providers for 2025, as well as current levels of staff participation. The rate change for Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance holders is 10%, with a 7.5% increase for the affiliated Delta Dental insurance. Vision insurance with VSP has increased 6%. Kaiser dental has a 0% rate increase, and Kaiser medical insurance has increased 10%. Benefit eligible staff have a choice for which insurance providers they utilize under the District’s contract with Citycounty Insurance Services (CIS).
The District's overall billing for the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) for the current biennium was 23.93% for Tiers 1 and 2, and 19.55% for the Oregon Public Service Retirement Plan (OPSRP).
Materials & Services
The total Materials and Services budget has decreased overall by around 2%.
Within the Materials section, the lines for Books and Audio-Visual remain relatively flat. This January, the board passed a budget resolution to accept a $5,000 grant from John H. Eldred Jr. Foundation for the purchase of additional youth services books. There is a slight increase in Periodicals as subscription prices have gone up. The Microforms line remains at zero as the last of The Silverton Appeal newspapers were microfilmed in 2022. For library programming, the overall allocation remains flat but with somewhat more funding going towards programs for youth than for adults.
Building Maintenance is significantly decreased for the proposed year, as the replacement of the flat roof on the original part of the library was completed in this current year. Over the past six years, the library has replaced aging HVAC systems as they fail. There are now three of the eight original HVAC units that are approaching thirty years of age, and the District is replacing them as they fail. As such, the Building Maintenance budget also reflects the anticipated replacement of another unit should one fail during the year. Repair and maintenance of plumbing and electrical systems are ongoing processes as the building systems age and experience the wear and tear of public use.
New this year are funds for potential parking lot upgrades and maintenance that are inclusive of asphalt repairs, paint-striping, improved exterior lighting, and parking signage. This is in anticipation of the City of Silverton partitioning the land tract that includes old City Hall, the Fischer building, the Library, and all city owned land and buildings from the south parking lot between the library and the Chamber building, down to the southernmost edge of the swimming pool property and creek. As of this writing, this is not a finalized decision, but funds have been budgeted in the event the District takes responsibility for additional parking spaces and grounds.
Line items that are flat include Advertising & Publishing, Water & Sewer, and Equipment Maintenance.
Line items that show a slight decrease include Miscellaneous and Election Expenses. The District will conduct elections for three board director seats in May of 2025 but the bill for elections is not received until the start of the fiscal year in July.
Office Supplies, Dues & Subscriptions, Telecommunications, Postage & Freight, Gas/Electricity, Conference & Training, Travel, Minor Equipment & Furnishings, Bookkeeping & Audit, Electronic Media, and Insurance have all increased somewhat due to rising costs of those goods and services. The Technical Services Supplies line is increased in anticipation of specialty supplies needed for readying our archival, closed stacks collection for public display and use.
Contingency
The amount in the Contingency line of the budget is for the purpose of appropriations, so that these funds would be readily available for transfer, by Board resolution, to the appropriate budget line for expenditure in the event of unforeseen expenses, such as the failure of multiple HVAC units in a year or other emergencies impacting library facilities or services. State law limits the amount that can be transferred from Contingency to 15% of the total appropriation in the original adopted budget’s operating fund, and these funds can only be transferred to an existing appropriation.
Other Requirements
The 2024-2025 proposed budget also includes two categories comprising unappropriated funds, which cannot be spent in the fiscal year without adoption of a supplemental budget or a declaration of emergency.
The first of these is Reserved for Future Expenditures. The funds in this line are primarily from bequest funds, as well as from receipt of State Timber Lands income, and from conservative fiscal management of available income. The existence of these funds has provided for added service hours, funded equipment purchases and cushioned the impact of PERS rate increases. The District intends to continue using the funds in this line for purposes related to both infrastructure maintenance and service enhancements.
Finally, the standard Unappropriated Ending Fund Balance reserves funds for meeting the financial needs of the District during the first third of each fiscal year – before that year's tax revenues begin to be received – without the use of a tax anticipation loan, which would incur interest and processing costs for the taxpayers. Funds are also maintained in this line to ensure coverage of the deductible amounts on the District's flood and earthquake insurance coverage, should there be major damage to the Library building and/or contents.
SUMMARY:
The intent of this proposed budget is to support current and developing programs and services for library users of all ages; to maintain and refresh the Library's materials collection, both physical and electronic; to plan for, implement, and support evolving technologies; and to provide for the maintenance, repair, and replacement, as needed of the Library's physical infrastructure elements.
The proposed budget calls for the District to levy property taxes at its permanent rate of $0.5748 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation.
