Library budget heads to arbitration Oct. 27

Representatives of the five municipalities that fund the Rhinelander District Library will meet at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, to settle the library’s 2027 budget. The towns of Pine Lake and Newbold requested the arbitration hearing.

The library board of trustees chose the date during its Oct. 13 meeting. Library director Virginia Roberts told trustees the budget picture has improved since the original request went to the municipalities.

The district budget was submitted at $1,087,943,19 a 3.48% increase. Roberts said that figure was prepared months before key costs were known. Health insurance is now expected to rise 15.8% rather than the roughly 20% first projected. Staffing costs have also flattened: one employee has left, and the two people hired will start at lower rates than the departing staff. As a result, the increase now appears to be closer to 1.4%.

“I know that our health insurance has come down, so I’ll start it with … this is what I know,” she explained. “Things have changed. Let me please explain that to you, and then there’ll be a fight,” she said when trustee Gerald Anderson asked where she planned to open negotiations.

How the hearing works

The arbitration process is spelled out in the library’s joint agreement with the city of Rhinelander and the towns of Newbold, Pine Lake, Pelican and Crescent. Each municipality sends one representative to the table, and a majority vote decides the outcome.

The representatives can set only the bottom line of the budget. Individual line items remain with the library board. The municipalities may recommend specific changes, which the director said she would take under advisement and bring back to trustees.

Board of Trustees president Laura Tooke Effinger will call the meeting to order. The municipal representatives then elect a chair to run the session, typically a town representative. The meeting will also be held on Zoom and recorded. The director said this helps keep tempers in check.

The last arbitration took place in 2024. Hearings usually last about 45 minutes, Roberts said.

She said she hopes the matter is resolved before the end of October. The Oneida County Board’s share of library funding has cleared committee but still needs final approval from the full board, which she believes meets in November. If the county reverses course, the towns would be responsible for the difference.

Formula drives town shares

Each municipality’s share is calculated by a formula based half on equalized property value and half on population. Populations changed little this year, so the shifts are driven by equalized value. Newbold’s equalized value rose the most. The city of Rhinelander’s equalized value declined.

That means cutting the library’s overall budget does little to reduce Newbold’s bill, Roberts said. “The lower I go, the more money Rhinelander doesn’t pay. It doesn’t help Newbold that much,” she said.

Roberts also said municipal officials repeatedly cite state levy limits during arbitration. She she said she does not know those limits because they depend on variables specific to each municipality that are not shared with her.

“They love the library. I’ve heard this millions of times. They love us. They don’t want to pay for us, and it’s death by 1,000 cuts,” she said.

She acknowledged that her original formula contained minor errors. She said she learned of them secondhand from a town board meeting.

Trustees also discussed a claim circulating that the library has more full-time equivalent employees than comparable libraries. Roberts alleged the claim traces to a particular individual but did not identify the person. That person compared libraries statewide with similar budgets using a two-year-old annual report, she said.

Trustee Ruth Jaeger reviewed that comparison. She said about two-thirds of the libraries on the list were in Madison- or Milwaukee-area suburbs, and every one spent more per capita than Rhinelander. The library worked with Erica Brewster of the Wisconsin Valley Library Service on a comparison with northern Wisconsin libraries. Roberts said that comparison shows Rhinelander’s cost per FTE is lower than most.

“Our library runs on people,” the director said. “We have two floors, and we have everybody from cradle to grave walking through here, and we need professionals who are well trained.”

Jaeger advised that Newbold officials suggested using volunteers to reduce staff costs but Roberts said the use of volunteers creates liability issues.

The public may attend the Oct. 27 hearing in the library meeting room.