The St. Paul Public Library system serves a fast-growing city population. The bulk of library funding comes from the city government, through local property taxes. To change library funding, advocates had to address city funding and governing structures. This effort was spearheaded by the library's active, private Friends group.

Advocacy Goals

• Library Levy. Beginning in 1999, library advocates worked for the passage of a special tax devoted to funding the library.


• Governance Change. To ensure full communication between city and library leadership, the library system proposed that the City Council itself serve as Library Board, meeting an additional day a month to fill this separate function.

Activities

• Citizen Engagement. In 1992, the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library formed a 30-person advocacy committee to lobby elected officials for stronger library funding. They found members by asking branch libraries to find active, involved citizens who would be willing to serve. The Advocacy Committee was asked to identify key issues, and to raise awareness of these issues to local government and in local media.


• Best Practices Research. In 1999, after eight years of annual lobbying campaigns, the friends began a search for a longer-term solution to stable library funding. They created a City Task Force in 1999 to examine possible library funding structures. Two years later, the task force recommended that the city separate revenue for library use out of the city's general fund.


• New Funding Structure. The task for proposed a new public library levy, designed to appear on each citizen's tax statement clarifying exactly how much everyone paid for a strong public library.


• Legal Research. The friends learned that in order for a new library tax levy to be implemented, the city would need new enabling legislation from the tax committee of the state legislature. This enabling legislation was passed by the 2002 Minnesota State Legislature.

Stumbling Block

Political Change. The Library Levy Task Force began meeting shortly before a new mayor took office. The new mayor's administration joined the process at point when many of the decisions had already been made. Perhaps perceiving that his input would be limited, the mayor opposed the proposed Library Levy and changes in library governance.

Breakthroughs

A Political Ally. The Library gained much support at the campaign's outset by enlisting an ally on the City Council - Pat Harris - who helped set up the Task Force.

Results

• Implementation of new levy. The new dedicated library levy was passed by unanimous vote of the city council in April 2003 and was implemented in January 2004. The targeted advocacy effort had taken five years.


• The new city ordinance established the library as a new agency with its own taxing ability under the umbrella of St. Paul's city government, per the City Task Force's 2001 recommendations.


• In the 12 years after organized advocacy efforts began in 1992, the library budget increased by more than $12 million. Incredibly, the city did not raise the overall tax levy at all in that period.


• In most of those years, the entire platform of the Advocacy Committee was included in the city-council-approved library budget

Tips for Others:

• Involve key elected officials from the beginning of any campaign.


• Find a champion in politics, such as a City Council member who loves the library, to work with you to effect change.


• Be persistent. St. Paul treated advocacy as a long-term process that needed attention all year, every year, and not just at budget time.


• Work closely with the library director and the library trustees in determining the platform for which lobbying will be conducted.

Lobbying is a year-long process, and much more effective that way than when it is done at the 11th hour.

Friends of the St. Paul Public Library: http://www.thefriends.org/

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