Sequim Gazette staff

The Board of Trustees of the North Olympic Library System in late November approved a $3.8 million budget that cuts proposed spending by 3 percent. It’s the third consecutive year the library board has cut the system’s annual budget.

The library system collects 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation in its boundaries. Since 2011, the system’s property tax revenues have dropped about 15 percent.

Board trustees said they are committed to maintaining the NOLS 2012 business plan to adding more books, e-books, DVDs and other materials to the library’s collection; the library’s 2014 budget invests 10 percent more than last year’s budget for books and other library materials, bringing the total materials budget to $440,575.

To balance the 2014 budget, board trustees shifted all essential capital outlay expenditures to the 2014 Capital Outlay Budget, which will be presented to the board for approval in January, and transferred about $80,000 from the system’s $1.2 million reserve fund to the operating budget.

Library employees will see a 3-percent cost-of-living increase; the average cost-of-living adjustment granted to employees between 2008-2013 was a little less than 1 percent.

For more information about the budget or the North Olympic Library System, see www.nols.org or call NOLS Executive Director Paula Barnes at 417-8500 ext. 7715, or e-mail to director@nols.org.