EVERETT — Reduced hours. Furloughed workers. Longer wait times for books.
These will be some of the results of Everett’s proposed cuts to the public library’s budget, set to go into effect when the 2025 budget is passed. At a meeting Tuesday, the library Board of Trustees shared for the first time how programs, operating hours and staffing would be affected as the city aims to address its ongoing budget deficit.
The city is planning to cut the library’s annual budget to $5.1 million, down from $5.8 million this year, a 12% cut. To save costs, the library will be open 72 hours per week, 24 hours less than the 96 hours the two branches are currently open weekly.
The two library branches currently have differing schedules. The main branch in north Everett is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and is open until 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Evergreen branch in south Everett has the same schedule, but is closed Monday.
As part of the new schedule, both libraries will share the same hours to ensure a staff already stretched thin won’t have to split work between the two branches. The locations will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, noon to 8 p.m. on Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and noon to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.
The library will not lay off employees, but staffing levels will decrease from 38.4 full-time equivalent workers to 32.7. Those reductions — not yet finalized — came from a mix of voluntary buyouts, reductions of hours and furloughs. The buyouts go into effect Nov. 30 and furloughs begin Dec. 29.
The new schedule goes into effect Dec. 1, before the City Council passes the final budget, because the library’s staffing reductions mean it will not be able to operate at its current schedule.
For library staff, the reductions mean more than just numbers on a spreadsheet.
“Our community will be impacted by these budget reductions,” said Abigail Cooley, the library director. “They’re going to be painful to our entire community, and it’s going to be painful for our staff to not be able to provide the level of service that we’re attempting to and that we want to.”
The city plans to cut the library’s budget in an effort to close a $12.6 million deficit in its general fund. In August, voters rejected a property tax levy lift, which would have funded a number of city services, but at the cost of an extra $28 per month on the average Everett homeowner’s property tax bill.
Since 2001, the city has been limited to 1% annual increases to its property tax levies, lower than the rate of inflation. As property taxes are one of the primary and most consistent forms of revenue for municipalities, the inability to raise levies has caused a structural deficit, the city said.
Board members unanimously passed the changes Tuesday night, and voiced their support for library leadership.
“The approach to taking a brutal budget hit, you sound like you were listening to the staff and doing it with them as much as you could, rather than mandating this has to happen,” said Brian Hennessy, a board member.
For example, the schedule was difficult to finalize, especially the evenings, Cooley said, as a number of activities — including book clubs and writers groups — take place Tuesday nights. In the end, library staff decided to keep Thursday evenings open later, as the Evergreen location hosts its “Play and Learn” activity Tuesday mornings, and the branch doesn’t have enough staff to stay open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Now, because of the cuts, even the Board of Trustees won’t be able to use its own building for its weekly meetings, held Tuesday nights in the library branches, and will have to find a new location.
A reduction in the library’s collections budget will also mean less books will be purchased, likely leading to longer wait times.
The cuts, Cooley said, will cover the library’s budget gap for the next two years, if it is funded at the same level in 2026.
“We’re not trying to do more with less,” Cooley said. “We will be doing less with less.”
Cooley was set to present the library’s plans for cuts at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. The council is set to vote on the final city budget Dec. 4.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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