Fight Cuts to Library Services

Reinstate Core Library Programs and Replace Library Leadership

Dear Boulder Community,

On October 20, 2026, the Boulder Public Library Board of Trustees approved a 2027 budget that:

• Cuts one in six full-time-equivalent library staff positions

• Eliminates programs for adults earning high school equivalency (HiSET)

• Eliminates the teen space in Main, converting it to a public meeting room

• Shuts down the BLDG 61 woodshop

The library’s leadership, Director David Farnan and the Board of Trustees, blames the shortfall on deferred building maintenance, rising labor costs, and lower-than-expected property tax revenue since the library became a district in 2023.

These cuts were a choice, not a necessity.

Property tax revenue is expected to fall by 3%, roughly $535,000. The budget cuts personnel by $1.5 million, nearly three times that. In the new budget, $1.5M is allocated to buildings, with an increase of capital spending from $531,000 to $2.0 million. However, the Facilities Study that will recommend how to spend that money isn’t due until the end of 2026, and the budget packet lists only “potential” projects. Key services --- for teens and vulnerable adults --- are being cut for projects that haven’t been explored yet.

The library has existing funds that could allow time for public deliberation. The library ended 2025 with a $7.4 million fund balance, including $1.0 million unallocated, plus about $801,000 in unallocated 2026 property tax revenue. By phasing in capital spending, they can carefully consider alternatives and protect existing services.

The same budget still funds discretionary spending:

• $50,000 for new self-checkout kiosks, a cost that is expected to recur. Similar units --- such as those offered by Bibliotheca --- cost an estimated $5,000 to $10,000 each, for what is essentially a PC with an RFID scanner.

• A $26,000 compensation study, even though staff recently unionized and have representation on pay. When a trustee asked whether the study was necessary, the question went unanswered. Library records from December 2025 show the study was already planned for early 2027 so the director’s salary would not “cap out” of its range. The director’s salary is currently $196,400.

Despite the magnitude of these changes, the budget decision was made with limited public engagement and discussion. On September 29, there was a Zoom meeting where the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to cut staffing costs by up to 20%, moving that money to facility maintenance and capital projects. There was only one public comment. In the October 20 meeting, instead of addressing community concerns, several trustees spoke during the budget discussion about how long they had volunteered or how much they “love the library.” These meetings are not a place for discussion of trustee credibility. They are for deliberation. One trustee moved to approve the budget despite community requests for more transparency, saying it would ensure “no one would get the idea that things would change.” The rest quickly followed and voted to approve the budget.

The order of events calls for investigation of mismanagement. In November 2022, voters agreed to fund the library as its own district. By the Board’s own account, it then opened two new branches, added more than 60 employees, put every library back on a seven-day schedule, reopened the Carnegie archives, and nearly doubled its materials budget. Those were promises to voters, and I’m glad they were kept. But in that same post last November, the Board said state law had already cut the District’s revenue by about $1 million by capping property tax rates, and called its commitment to service “unwavering.” Property taxes are 97% of the District’s revenue. The Board knew it was building on a source the state was shrinking. Less than a year later, it is cutting a sixth of its positions and the services that came with them, including the Carnegie access it counted as a promise kept, and citing “significant deferred maintenance.” While the funds come from taxes, deciding how fast to grow (and who pays when it falls short) is the Board’s job.

The proposed cuts also fall hardest on the people with the fewest alternatives: teens and low-income adults. In the words of one public commenter, teens might report using the library for games, homework, and hanging out, but this mischaracterizes what is going on. Some of the youth who used the teen space had no internet at home, no adults at home they could talk to, and no money for paid tutoring. Teens, especially girls, were often harassed by adults in the main library before the teen space existed. While these harassment issues are often underreported, they indicate crucial concerns for minor safety in the library, which was one factor leading to the expansion of the teen space in the 2014 renovations. Cutting these services shifts the cost onto those who are least able to absorb it.

We call on the library to:

1. Reinstate the adult high school equivalency program, the teen space, and the BLDG 61 woodshop, and restore the staff positions.

2.  Phase in capital spending after the Facilities Study is complete, using existing reserves, rather than cutting services now.

1. Pause discretionary spending, including the kiosk replacement and the compensation study, while alternatives are explored.

2. Hold a public budget process with real time for comment and real deliberation.

3. Accept the resignation of Director David Farnan and the current Board of Trustees. Trustees are appointed by a joint committee of City Council members and County Commissioners, and we ask those officials to act if the Board does not.

A library should serve the community before it serves itself.

If you agree, add your name below.