Madison Public Library Operating Budget 2025 (Including the Imagination Center)

City of Madison 2025 Budget Outlook

From Library Director Tana Elias:

The City of Madison has faced a budget shortfall of some degree every year for the past 14 years due to state-imposed restrictions on City revenue and growing need for services. The Finance Department recorded a four-part series to explain the fundamentals of the City’s budget and options for closing the $27 million structural deficit in February 2024. This information series was followed by five community conversations hosted by the Common Council in May and early June 2024. The $27 million figure was amended to $22 million in June 2024 as the City finalized its 2023 budget.

See all past budget presentations at the City of Madison's 2025 Budget Outlook(link is external) web page or review the current and past adopted City of Madison budgets(link is external).

Library 2025 Operating Budget

On June 17, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway asked city agencies in the general and library fund categories - including Madison Public Library - to draft operating budgets with at least 5% service reductions(link is external). These budgets are due to City Finance by July 19. The Library Board will consider the draft budgets and proposed reduction scenarios at their board meeting on July 11, with an additional meeting set for July 18 if needed.

The library's budget team has worked tirelessly over the past few months to creatively identify a variety of reductions and reallocations that prevent any single library or the collection from experiencing a deeper, isolated reduction; however, if either of the two 5% reduction scenarios presented to the Library Board this week are realized by the end of the budget process in November, the magnitude of the potential cuts will be pronounced. Both scenarios would reduce the library operating hours by approximately 100 hours per week across seven locations, require up to 18.7 full-time equivalent (FTE) layoffs (representing 29.1 staff positions), and hinder the library's ability to achieve priorities identified by the community through newly adopted strategic priorities.

You can view the two scenarios, titled Option A and Option B, here(link is external). Each option offers a cost to continue budget followed by a 5% reduction scenario.

Read below to see key resources(link is external), read budget reduction FAQs(link is external), look through a graphic timeline of the full budget process(link is external), and see how you can get involved(link is external) in sharing your priorities for library service with the city and the Library Board.

Visit for the full post with links to resources.

NOTES FROM THE BLOG RELATED TO THE IMAGINATION CENTER

How did the library decide which items or services to cut in the proposed reduction plan?

To guide its decision-making, library leadership relied on the new, equity-focused Madison Public Library strategic plan and considered the following:

Which library services do most people use?
What types of unique services does the library offer?
Which reductions affect certain customer groups the most?
Which services is the library statutorily or contractually bound to provide, and at what levels?
What kind of guidance has the Common Council offered?

Priorities included:

minimizing any reductions in branch closures, layoffs, hours of operation, and services
opening the Imagination Center at Reindahl Park in 2026
minimizing effects of increase to Dane County net payment
applying an equity lens in relation to hours reductions or closures

What is the Imagination Center at Reindahl Park project? Can it be delayed?
The Imagination Center at Reindahl Park(link is external), planned on the northeast side, is a City of Madison multi-departmental project of the library, Madison Parks, and Engineering. Situated in one of the city’s largest green spaces, the facility will include a library, community gathering spaces, and collaborative programming. The northeast side is growing at twice the pace as the rest of the city and has no library service nearby. The area also is home to a high percentage of immigrants, low-income families, and residents of color who desperately need library service to thrive.

The Madison Public Library Foundation is committed to raising $4.5 million of the project cost and has already begun fundraising. The Imagination Center at Reindahl Park will increase the library operating budget by $2.1 million over three years for branch and systemwide needs, as well as increasing debt service. An additional $1.26-$1.31 million more would still need to be funded by the Library to open the Imagination Center. However, city departments have already spent the last several years planning and designing the facility and delaying the project will likely lead to increased construction costs. Part of this gap in operational vs. capital planning comes from the way the City's budget process(link is external) works. The City of Madison Capital Budget approves funds looking four years into the future, whereas the Operations Budget is approved on an annual basis for only the year ahead. So the funds have been approved to plan and bid for construction on the Imagination Center at Reindahl Park, the Library is still responsible for operationalizing the costs to staff and run the new location.

GET INVOLVED

At this point in the process, you can get involved by sharing your library service priorities with the Library Board.

Contact the Library Board to share your concerns or service priorities.
Contact the library's administration department at administration@madisonpubliclibrary.org(link sends e-mail) to share your concerns or service priorities.
Attend the Library Board meeting(link is external) on July 11, 5pm (an additional meeting, if needed, will happen July 18, 5pm).

After the board approves the budget on July 11, you can share your library service priorities and feedback on all city services with your alder.