The Hammond Public Library Board of Trustees voted to close both its E. B. Hayward and Howard branches as of November 1, 2011. This decision was difficult, yet necessary, due to declining property tax revenues, as well as an increase in the percentage of uncollectable property taxes. Property taxes are the Library's largest source of operating revenues.

Three factors have impacted library revenue:

• Reductions in collections due to Circuit Breaker legislation, which was voter-mandated.
• Due to the instability of the economy, homeowners have found it increasingly difficult to pay their property taxes, thus the percentage of uncollected taxes increased.
• Because Lake County has not adopted a local option income tax, state legislators have imposed a levy freeze on Lake County's taxing units. 

The library's advertised budget for 2012 is $4,804,717. Property taxes account for about 93% of the total revenue, or $3,514,095. As the full impact of declining property tax revenues became apparent later in 2010, the need to hold down spending became more urgent as the Circuit Breaker's caps expanded and began to cut deeper into operating funds.

The Indiana Legislative Services Agency originally estimated that the library would lose $511,075 due to the Circuit Breaker cap. However, at the end of July 2011, we were given a new, much higher estimated loss of $801,055. Revenue lost due to Circuit Breaker caps and to uncollectable taxes will total $1,207,565 in 2012, or about 33% of total library operating revenues. This trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

For the past several years, the Hammond Public Library Board has taken steps to hold down spending: leaving several full time key positions, as well as many part time positions, vacant (through attrition); freezing staff pay; reducing spending on supplies, subscriptions, and other library materials; and cutting spending in other areas of the budget.  

Because library operating revenues are likely to continue to drop in 2012, the Library Board must now consider taking even more steps to reduce spending, such as continuing to: cut personnel costs through future attrition, when possible (personnel costs represent the largest percentage of all operating costs);  reduce spending, where possible, on library materials; look for ways to save on employee benefit costs; and seek ways to reduce other areas of the operating budget.