Tag Archives: Budget

2025 Public Library Budget Workshop recap

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On Thursday, May 29, the Indiana State Library hosted the 2025 Public Library Budget Workshop. This workshop, primarily for an audience of public library directors, bookkeepers, treasurers and trustees, focuses on helping public libraries get ready for the budget planning season for the next fiscal year. We bring together the Department of Local Government Finance and the State Board of Accounts to help guide libraries through this process and any changes that may be coming. This year we were also joined by special guest Sandy Petrie, director of the Noble County Public Library.

The morning started with a presentation by Ryan Burke, assistant budget director of the Department of Local Government Finance. Burke highlighted DLGF’s webinar on new legislation that would be coming up, important dates coming up on the budget calendar, as well as resources on the DLGF website. He reminded libraries of their maximum budget for non-binding review and the process of binding review by fiscal body resolution. Finally, he gave a sneak peak of what they are calling Budget 2.0 – a streamlined and improved application for submitting budget forms in Gateway that is scheduled to launch in 2026 and is already intriguing many of the folks that attended that day.

The afternoon began with a presentation by Beth Goss and Mitch Wilson, government technical assistance and compliance directors at the State Board of Accounts. They touched on new legislation that impacts public libraries, including increased thresholds for local public works projects, changes in retainage requirements for public works projects over $200,000, additional instances where executive sessions may be held by the board and changes for the receipt of FIT and CVET distributions. SBOA reminded libraries that Gateway is not intended for document storage, so to make sure they had copies of their documents as they will be removing some of the older files on Gateway. There was a spirited discussion on accounts payable and receivable, electronic payments and the disbursal of funds.

Following SBOA’s presentation, Noble County Public Library director Sandy Petrie spoke about the importance of understanding cash flow and shared the method and spreadsheet she uses to keep track of expenses and revenue. The day was finished with announcements from Jennifer Clifton, Library Development Office director at the Indiana State Library.

This post was written by Hayley Trefun, public library consultant, Library Development Office, Indiana State Library.

Library Budgets

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Starting in early July, 237 Indiana public libraries plan a budget. This will tell how the library spends money in the next calendar year. Library expenses are for services such as staff, materials, facilities and technology. These services are determined by the library community goals as outlined in their strategic plan.

Libraries in Indiana can levy a tax that results in revenue from property tax; the other money is received from miscellaneous tax such as sales tax, some local income tax, and revenue the library generates itself through fines and fees.

There are two authorities that oversee the library and its budget plan: the library board, and The Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF), a state agency. Each year the budget can grow according to a growth quotient, a number that is calculated from federal data based on the growth of personal income. The DLGF issues the growth quotient and the library board calculates the budget with input from library director. The budget estimate with the calculation results in a levy and a tax.

The budget approval process follows the budget calendar. First the public is given notice through two advertisements in September, then a public hearing is held for the plans approval by the library board. After approval, the plan is submitted to the DLGF by November 2. The budget order is issued in the New Year by the DLGF.

The public can see library budgets on the public side of the Budget Gateway found here https://gateway.ifionline.org/default.aspx. Click on the link to view local budgets. Then select report, for example, select “Budget Estimate-Financial Statement-Tax Rate.” On this page you make several selections. Choose a county, unit (library) and the name of the unit. You can choose from the fund types available to see the budgets. The report gives the total budget estimate, the tax rate and the tax levy.

The public libraries work as good stewards to safeguard the money, monitor the cash flow, and provide the community with excellent library services.

For more information, view an eight minute video on “Public Library Budgeting in Indiana” found on the webpage http://www.in.gov/library/5416.htm. This presentation is a budget primer for library staff and patrons.

This blog post was written by Karen Ainslie, Library Development Librarian and Professional Development Office Librarian. For more information, contact the Library Development Office at (317) 232-3697 or email statewideservices@library.in.gov.