The Town’s $50K increase for our 2022 budget was a significant and very constructive step towards closing KVL’s $140K funding gap. We are grateful to our Town leaders for this increase and look forward to working together to fully restore sustainable funding, realizing that it may take more than a single budget cycle to rectify.
Following KVL’s 2021 awareness campaign about our financial crisis, there was an unprecedented outpouring of generosity from the community in our Fall Annual Appeal and major gift efforts. With these funds, we were able to establish a “Special Operating Reserve,” which we are drawing on in 2022 to temporarily cover the cost of partially restored library hours of operation, including Saturdays. Thank you!
If the Town can increase our annual operating support by a total of $90K over the next three years, KVL’s Special Operating Reserve ought to be sufficient to temporarily cover our funding gap and preserve the basic services and hours we provide today.
KVL receives the majority of its core operating budget (payroll, building maintenance, and utilities) from the Town of Bedford. In recent years, Town funding has not kept pace with our ever-rising expenses, which meant that KVL had to do more and more fundraising just to keep our doors open. This is not a sustainable situation, and is considered a “crisis” by the Handbook for Library Trustees of New York State. That is why in 2020 we first brought our financial crisis to the attention of the Town Board and our community.
October is the time of year when the Town of Bedford reviews its budget, including funding for our town’s three libraries. This is a good time to check in with your elected Town officials by letter or email. Please be sure to thank them for increasing our Town’s annual support of KVL by $50K in last year’s budget cycle and kindly urge them to make similar increases in the next two budget cycles so KVL can be properly restored before it faces another crisis.