Fremont County Commission: library budget must cut by 23%
RIVERTON — Fremont County government braced for the impact of declining property tax revenue – and the county commission asked its various departments and boards to all cut their budgets by 10%. All of them, that is, except the Fremont County Library system,
which at last week’s budget hearings was surprised by an unexplained increase in how much it was being asked to cut.
The new figure wasn’t a 10% cut, but more than 20%.
The library system was being asked to cut its budget by more than double what was asked of other areas of county government.
Fremont County Libraries Director Anita Marple brought multiple different budget options to the commissioners to weigh. Most of these options included an ask to be able to use money from its combined interest fund to supplement the budget cuts that were being asked of it.
No, she was told; the budget had to be cut down to a total of $300,000 less than 2024, and the library system couldn’t use CIF funds to offset the reductions.
Thursday evening, the library board called an emergency budget meeting to discuss how to proceed.
Marple had asked for it to be added to the June 17 commissioners’ meeting schedule – and two remaining budget options, the seventh and eighth that Marple had drafted, had to be discussed and made ready to be presented.
The Fremont County Library Board has most frequently made headlines for its disagreements, but in this instance, was united: The commission’s budget cuts are unduly burdensome compared to what is being asked of other departments, the commission appears to be targeting the library system, and no reasons have been provided for either, was the overwhelming sentiment.
“This is going to kill us,” library board member John Angst remarked. “It sounds like we’re looking for a fight – well it is. It’s an existential fight as far as I’m concerned.”
“I hope that the county commission is listening tonight, because the citizens will be there Tuesday to tell people how important libraries are,” Fremont County Library Foundation President Cody Beers warned. “Libraries are an indispensable part of our communities.”
A 23% cut
In 2024, the county budgeted $1,307,161 for the Fremont County Library System. The request to reduce that budget by $300,000 represents a 22.95% decrease in its budget – more than double than what’s been asked of any other county department or board.
During its emergency budget meeting last week, library board members repeatedly stated that this request had never been explained.
“We should first look at the fact that the $300K [$300,000] is an arbitrary number that we were bestowed with, and was not discussed. Did you get any justification, director, as to what transpired?” Angst asked Marple. “We were disrespected, and the fact is that we did not get a justification for the $300K [$300,000] in the first place. Percentage-wise, that’s crazy. We are being polite in a time when we should not be anything but respectful but be firm.”
“The question is why the library has been singled out for a 23% reduction … when we are already operating on a lean budget,” board chair Perry Cook remarked. “Why are we being disproportionately penalized? … That was never justified, that was arbitrary coming from county commissioner [Mike] Jones to Anita and then to us.”
But, pointed out Angst, it isn’t just that the library board is being asked to reduce its budget by a much higher percentage.
The Fremont County Library System has already seen significant decreases to its budget in recent years; the county commission conveyed to the library that it would like to see it raising a larger share of its own operating budget.
“We’ve been good stewards with our nickel. We’ve been working without people. We’ve been doing everything – and there’s going to be a human cost to the fact that we have personnel who are short,” Angst commented.
If the county proceeds with its $300,000 reduction without the option to supplement $100,000 from the CIF, he warned, that decision “will see us being a backwater department.”
Budget options
There were two library budget options still on the table at the library board’s emergency budget meeting Thursday: options seven and eight.
Option seven entails allowing the libraries to make use of $100,000 from its combined interest fund. That doesn’t mean that it won’t be impacted – but it means that it likely would not need to change the number of days it is open.
“You’re having a reduction of 64 staff hours. Can we say that closes the library?” Cook wondered.
No, answered Marple; a significant portion of the hours that would be cut under option seven are positions that are currently vacant.
“The big change would be laying off a 24-hour position … I think we can function without cutting [library] hours. I think we can make it work. What it does is it puts stress on the rest of the staff.”
“Even with option seven, even if [the commissioners] allow us to use that $100,000, the library is not going to look the same in a month as it does today,” board member Kristen McClelland described.
Option seven is “already draconian,” Cook agreed.
Option eight, which is the option without the $100,000 in CIF monies, is even more so, she continued.
This option includes the loss of two benefited staff people, Marple explained – and hopefully, she added, the commission would float the library the $649 this budget remains short of the $300,000 cut.
Option eight would result in the closures to which Cook alluded.
Although Marple was unwilling to say which day or days the library would be closed as a result of the cuts without consultation with her staff, it seems likely that it would be Mondays, Saturdays, or even potentially both.
“At our original budget session, I don’t feel like they understood that it is going to be painful to make cuts to our budget,” McClelland said, commenting that the board should lay out specific examples of programs that the library would need to cut: Story time, book clubs, youth programs.
“It’s true that you have to have the [board of commissioners] decide that you could spend the [CIF] money – but let’s put them on the spot to make that decision,” Angst argued. “[The commissioners] know the ramifications, they just don’t want to deal with the political implications of that. And the thing is, if you really want to make the statement, you make the request – you want to put it on their shoulders. And if they come back and say ‘this is what we’re going to do to you,’ the heat they take is theirs.”
Right now, the CIF funds can only be used for collection development – and the county commissioners have to sign off on any release of CIF funds. But, it was noted by the board, the county has not previously expressed interest in having a dedicated collection development fund separate from other library budgets.
It’s also easier to fundraise and solicit donations for collection development than for operations, Cook pointed out.
“If they don’t let us utilize that $100,000, that is when things really are bad. If they will let us use that, I think we are buying one more year,” Marple summarized the two remaining options, cautioning against “antagonizing” the commissioners.
“This isn’t sustainable. This is emergency mode, one year,” McClelland added.
It was agreed that during the board’s June 17 budget presentation, Cook would read a letter from the library board to the commissioners and McClelland would lay out the two options and their impacts on library services.
Commissioners cut library budget
The commission agreed upon the $300,000 reduction during a budget work session on June 9. At the beginning of the discussion, Marple was criticized by commissioners for providing such a litany of options – something which library board members Marta Mossburg and Carrie Johnson later noted she had been directed to do by the county commission.
“If I were the head of that department, I would simply provide one option and say, ‘this is the amount of money that the library needs to run considering the issue of cuts,’” said commissioner Clarence Thomas. “There’s an administrative responsibility of knowing exactly what it’s going to take.”
Jones then pointed out that, in his opinion, all of Marple’s submitted options expressed a desire to “maintain all three libraries in Lander, Riverton, and Dubois and their operational hours exactly as they are.”
“That’s all fine and well,” he continued. “But we still need to see the cuts that we’re asking for.”
If the library needs additional money to maintain its operations in the wake of cuts, Jones remarked, it can ask the Fremont County Library Foundation – the library system’s nonprofit partner – to fill in the gaps.
During the library board’s meeting, Johnson recalled Jones saying that he didn’t want to see a reduction in services at any of the Fremont County libraries as a result of budget cuts.
After further discussion, the commissioners reached consensus on a $300,000 reduction to the library’s general fund budget – a nearly 23% decrease.
Additionally, the commissioners agreed to deny the library’s request to use $100,000 from the CIF. Instead, only $35,000 will be allowed – and it must be spent on specific “materials agreed upon two years ago,” said Jones, not general operations.
Commissioner Jennifer McCarty was insistent that the commission should move forward with increased cuts to the library.
“Let’s go for the 300 [thousand],” she urged. “They’ll have to figure it out.”
Commissioner Ron Fabrizius was also supportive of hiking the cuts.
“What does it really cost to run the library?” he questioned. “I’m interested in using some of this library budget in other places,” he said, such as the sheriff’s department and “other departments.”
The commission’s updated plan means that the library system must identify an additional $90,000 in cuts or new revenue beyond the $210,000 that Marple offered in the budgetary options that she originally submitted.
“You guys happy?” joked Jones, addressing his fellow commissioners. “You got your hatchets out?”
“I’m happy,” replied McCarty, doing a little dance in her chair.
‘Say that out loud’
“It’s ridiculous. I would submit this has probably never happened in county government,” Fremont County Libraries Foundation President Cody Beers commented during last week’s emergency library board meeting. “And to ask our county library director to bring forth eight options for a budget because of an arbitrary decision to cut $300,000 without justification – it’s not right.”
The commission’s decision to increase the cuts to the library came after Fremont County Assessor Tara Berg’s updated figures revealed that the county’s loss of revenue heading into the coming fiscal year is much less than originally expected.
“I feel indignant that, you know, Tara Berg’s final assessment was $1.8 million in loss of revenue for the county – which is incredibly different from the $4 million that we started the budget process with, that this $300,000 was predicated on. And I asked Mike [Jones] about that the other morning, and he said, well, they are taking the opportunity to add to their reserve,” Marple told the library board. “So I think they need to say that out loud in a meeting.”
While there was broad agreement among the board members that the consequences of these cuts needed to be made clear to the commissioners, there was some disagreement over whether it was worthwhile to ask for a rationale for both the disproportionately large cut to its budget and the decision not to allow it to use funds from the CIF.
“The idea of being polite in regards to the existence of the libraries will be a failure for us if we don’t stand up. So I am for one thing, and that is that we, in a unified fashion, unanimously, will vote to make the request for the …100 [thousand] of the curriculum funds, and that we ask for a justification,” Angst pushed.
“I’m not sure of antagonizing the county commissioners at this point,” Mossburg disagreed.
Marple commented that it is past the time to ask how the $300,000 number was arrived at – but that it is still potentially worthwhile to ask the commissioners to explain why the library may be denied the use of its CIF funds.
“I gave you more money to use and you guys are cutting, cutting, cutting,” County Clerk Julie Freese said following the commission’s decision to ramp up library cuts.
“Well,” replied Allen, “next year is going to be even worse.”
Tuesday’s hearing
After press time for the print edition of The Ranger Tuesday afternoon, the county commission heard from the library board about its new budget proposals.
Across social media, various people and organizations have been sounding the alarm, calling on Fremont County residents to come to the meeting and voice their opinions.
“Speaking on behalf of the foundation and the citizens of this county, this is a joke.
When people will not explain why they’re going to do something, it just rings of a conspiracy,” Beers said.
“If you don’t have information, people will rise up,” he said. “And I believe people will rise up on Tuesday, and I hope they will come en masse.”
The library budget presentation was scheduled for 2 p.m., following interviews to appoint new library board members to two vacant seats in the morning. As of Tuesday morning, a large number of Fremont County residents had gathered into the commissioners’ chambers.
This story was published on June 18, 2025.