Funding during the transition phase

No matter when the vote happens you are probably not going to have funding right away. Generally speaking these elections occur in between the two times of year that property tax bills are sent to residents so there will be a period of about six months where you will not have any funding. Depending on your circumstances it could even be one year from the date of the election certification before you receive funding.

Because of this you need to work with the city and/or county to determine whether or not they will carry you for that period of time. Other library districts have been funded by their local government officials so they did not have to pay back their loans. This is an option that you may be able to successfully negotiate. Hopefully the district planning committee explored this option, and you know what to do now that you are officially a district. If not you will have to start from the beginning. If the city/county is willing to either loan or give money to the library begin writing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the district board and the city/county that spells out how much money the city/county will either give or loan to the library. If it is a loan the MOU should also talk about how much the library will pay back annually and what the interest rate will be.

ASPeN: The New Library Directory

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