‘What do you lose when you pay less property tax?’
County libraries lobby for city assistance
LOVELL — “It’s not a fun time to be a librarian,” Big Horn County Library Director Tina Ely reported this week.
Ely has recently attended both Basin and Lovell town council meetings hoping to garner assistance with utility costs for the towns’ county-owned library buildings following a $70,000 cut to county funding last year. With further property tax cuts expected to impact the coming fiscal year, which will ultimately affect the budgets of county services like the library, Ely hoped to receive support through city services.
After breaking from the Frannie and Deaver libraries in August, Big Horn County Library’s budget of $180,000 is now split between its Lovell, Basin and Greybull locations, with three employees at each branch. This summer, all three libraries agreed to reduce their operating hours.
Ely and three library managers gave up their Wyoming retirement benefits, and all employees gave up their three personal paid days off.
Even then, Ely reported, the money the library receives from the county does not fund their operations in full. Friends of the Library and the Big Horn County Library Foundation have stepped up to help with programs, the purchase of reading materials and digital access through Libby. Grants also help with programming.
“I have to say, without grants, we would not be putting on programs, because that money is not in the budget. And of course, our Friends and Foundation also help with those programs,” Ely said.
However, neither grants nor local fundraising groups are able to help with the operating expenses – salaries, utilities or insurance. In Greybull, the town owns the library building and covers utilities, electric, maintenance and grounds care. The Lovell and Basin buildings are owned by the county, and utility and routine maintenance bills are covered by the library budget. In the past, custodian wages amounted to $7,377 for both libraries, and the Lovell library racked up $1,292 a year for grounds maintenance, though librarians have volunteered to take on some custodial duties in the face of budget cuts.
Library utility bills can reach over $500 a month, including electricity. In Basin, Mayor CJ Duncan pointed out that comping the library for its utilities would be taking from town enterprise funds, likely requiring rates be raised on its citizens to make up the difference.
Ely asked that the town consider only covering the library’s water and garbage bills. In Basin, her request was tabled. In Lovell, the city asked for advice from its attorney, pending further action.
“There’s just so many little expenses that we’re looking for help…,” Ely said. “The Friends, the Foundation, have just stepped up in all of our libraries. Our volunteers have come forward. Without them, some of these programs we put on, as short-staffed as we are, they would not be near as successful. We have great community support, I want to say. It’s just that we’re still looking for a little bit of help with the money.”
In January alone, 5,421 physical books were checked out from Big Horn County libraries, with 3,009 additional digital checkouts. Ely pointed out that adults are the primary digital consumers, with kids and older adults driving book checkouts.
“That just tells you how we are important to the community,” she said.
Broken down, 1,244 people visited the Basin library, 1,056 stopped in the Greybull branch and 1,225 were patrons in Lovell just last month. Unlike digital reading, those real-life visits require a physical building, and Ely worried that with further budget cuts on the horizon, that could be in jeopardy.
“With this size of county, not to have a north and south (library) would be…,” she trailed off.
“The county commissioners told us, the library board, that they really only have to support one library in the county. Quite frankly, if they keep cutting our funding, that’s what it could get down to, I don’t know. It just depends on what kind of money we get.”
The commission has previously noted that a north and south library would be ideal for Big Horn County.
Lovell is regularly the county’s busiest library, now serving Frannie and Deaver, too. Basin’s library is in the county seat. And Greybull’s library, supported by the town, sits between the two, with its utilities and maintenance covered.
Without county funding, Deaver has been able to keep its library open through volunteer hours, Mondays 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Deaver library was already housed in a town-owned building, and the town always covered utilities and maintenance. However, with the loss of county support, the town also lost local access to county library books and operates from its own donated collection. Deaver citizens must make the 20-minute drive to Lovell to check out a physical Big Horn County library book.
“I think people need to be aware that, yes, tax breaks are great when we get a tax break, but what is the toss up?” Ely said. “What do you lose when you pay less property tax? Libraries are one of the things that get hit, along with, of course, all your other services.”
When budget work began for this year, Big Horn County was looking to cut $4 million. Every department took a hit, with three now shortstaffed due to a hiring freeze. Maintenance, law enforcement, emergency management and road and bridge were all cut over $100,000.
The library, supported through an appropriation from the general fund, lost 20% of its county funding.
In Basin, councilmember Linda Weeks suggested that those saving money on taxes donate back to their local library.
This story was published on Feb. 26, 2026.