Prescott’s money woes threaten to have a domino effect on city services.
With an already short-handed fire department facing more cuts, city leaders may also have to make tough choices about the public library.
City money for the library is projected to remain flat in the next fiscal year, but the City Council has yet to make a final decision.
With state public safety pension debt choking Prescott’s general fund, the council has explored charging new library fees.
But a deal with Yavapai County requires the library to offer core services for free. And charging some types of fees would cut off county money for the city library, which money currently funds the overall budget, said Roger Saft, director of the Prescott Public Library.
“If we lost that $600,000, that would be a big impact,” Saft said. “We’d be losing a quarter of our budget.”
There are efforts to get a sales tax on the November ballot. If approved, that money would help pay off part of the city’s pension debt, finance the police and fire departments and leave more cash for other city services.
Prescott’s library has about 175,000 items and roughly 25,000 cardholders.
