MCPL trustees consider shortening downtown library hours in response to state tax cuts

The Monroe County Public Library may reduce hours at its downtown location as tax cuts passed by the Republican-led Indiana legislature in April threaten more than $300,000 in MCPL funding next year.

At a library board meeting on Wednesday evening, trustees and officials discussed plans to close the downtown library at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday every week.

The shorter hours would allow the MCPL to reduce staffing by the equivalent of five full-time employees over the next two years—which the library hopes to accomplish through attrition, rather than through layoffs.

Library director Grier Carson said at Wednesday’s meeting that the change could allow the MCPL to trim its budget while reducing the need for other cuts, like decreasing its collection budget or closing the downtown library for one day each week.

“Our guiding principle has been, whatever strategy we adopt, we want to minimize the impact on the public, first and foremost, and we want to minimize the impact on staff,” Carson said.

No formal decision has yet been made, and a final proposal has not been presented, but the trustees are likely to approve the shorter hours. The changes were first discussed at the library board’s June 18 meeting and will be voted on at the next meeting, slated for August 20.

The MCPL’s austerity measures are a consequence of Senate Bill 1, which passed the Indiana legislature with support from only one Democrat and was signed into law by Gov. Mike Braun on April 15. The measure lowers residential property taxes and raises the threshold for businesses to file property taxes.

Library officials estimate that the changes could reduce revenue by $358,000 in 2026, then $20,000 more over each of the next two years.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Josh Wolf, the library’s assistant director of public services, said that closing earlier made sense because both visits and PC usage at the downtown location drop off after 7 p.m.

Around one-tenth of downtown library patrons each weekday visit between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., according to data that Wolf presented at the meeting. That window is one-sixth of the total time each day that the library is open, meaning that visits are lower during the last two hours before closing.

Currently, patrons can visit the MCPL’s downtown location between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and noon and 6 p.m. on Sunday.

The library’s Ellettsville and Southwest branches follow the same schedule as the downtown location, except they close at 7 p.m. on Monday through Thursday. That means the shortened schedule would align hours at all the MCPL’s sites—which trustees saw as one advantage of the plan.

Room reservations and program attendance are also lower after 7 p.m., according to data presented on Wednesday.

The schedule changes would not affect offsite programming like Bookmobile visits, some of which conclude later than 7 p.m.

Board members also reflected on the absence of public complaints.

“Is it a good sign that we haven’t heard from the public?” trustee Nancy VanAllen asked. “Or do you think it’s just, like, we’re all busy, and people aren’t listening?”

Trustee Whitney Eads asked whether patrons had been able to learn about the proposal outside of watching library board meetings or talking to librarians. Carson said the planned changes had not been posted publicly and noted that he had chosen not to conduct a survey.

“If you put something out there and say, ‘do you like this?,’ then everyone’s going to have a reason to say no,” Carson said, adding that he expected responses would largely come from patrons who do not regularly use the library after 7 p.m.

The MCPL budget for 2025 anticipates $11.8 million in operating expenses. Its projected 2025 revenue is $11.9 million, of which $8.0 million comes from the library district’s tax levy. Without SB1, the library expected tax levy revenue to grow by 4% next year. But the tax overhaul is expected to lower growth to only 1%.

Now, library officials want to keep next year’s operating expenses from rising by more than 1% in order to maintain a narrow surplus.

The MCPL has maintained operating surpluses throughout its recent history, but they have declined from more than $1.8 million in 2021 to an estimated $150,000 in 2025. According to library finance director Gary Lettelleir, the surplus grew between 2011 and 2021, leading the library to hire more staff and build the new Southwest branch on Gordon Pike.

“We’re not a bank,” Lettelleir quipped, explaining that the library aims to expand services when it can and keep surpluses small.

He said the library expects a roughly $100,000 surplus next year and a deficit in 2027.

The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting also included data on long-term trends in library usage. Door counts show that average daily visits have increased since the pandemic and stabilized around 1,200 since 2022. But they have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels of around 1,900 visits a day. (Not every visit represents a unique visitor, since some people enter the library multiple times a day.)

Use of the library’s physical collections has increased since the pandemic but likewise remains below pre-pandemic levels. Digital collection use is up sharply this year, returning to early-pandemic levels.

In June, patrons checked out or renewed more than 129,000 physical items and retrieved almost 89,000 digital items from the MCPL’s collections.