• Why does the District need a Capital Plan?
• What are the priorities of the Plan?
• Where does the money come from?
• What is the present financial environment?
• What challenges does the District face?
• Improvement Plan Documents.

Why does the District need a Capital Plan?

It is the District’s policy to capitalize expenditures greater than $1,000 for equipment purchases and facility improvements with useful lives greater than one year. A Capital Plan provides the District with a road map to:

• Assess capital needs
• Identify funding sources for those capital projects/programs that will enable the District to meet the increasing demand for library services
• Establish priorities among projects to make the best use of District financial resources

What are the Priorities of the Plan?

In conjunction with the District’s operational plan and preparation of the annual budget, each Branch and Department is required to submit a capital request.  The requests include the capital requirements to ensure progress in meeting the District’s goals and objectives. 

The consolidated capital requests are evaluated on a District-wide basis and rated according to the following categories of need:

• Core Projects: public health or safety, legally mandated programs, construction phase completion
• Essential Projects: positive fiscal impact, maintenance or replacement program essential to avoid a predicted failure, conformance with Board policy, project interdependence, service level impact, leverage of federal or state grants
• Discretionary Projects: beneficial automation projects; projects to improve productivity and enhance morale

Where Does the Money Come From?

The primary sources of funds for the District’s operating budget, the General Fund, are ad valorem (property) taxes and intergovernmental revenues, which primarily represents the Consolidated Tax. In combination, these sources represent approximately 97% of the Fiscal year 2008-2009 General Fund budgeted revenues.

General Fund:

The General Fund finances the day-to-day provision of library programs and services such as books and other materials, computers, salaries, landscaping and janitorial contracts, etc.

It should be noted that the District’s Board of Trustees (the “Trustees”) has adopted the policy that at least 20% of the General Fund expenditures will be for library materials, a component of capital outlay.  This policy reflects the philosophy of the Trustees to make the District collection and facilities responsive to the needs expressed by its users.  This customer friendly operating approach by the Trustees and management has resulted in an increase in the District’s circulation from 10.1 million items in FY 2003-04 to 12.1 million items at the end of 2007-08 – a 20% increase in five years.

The library materials component of the FY 2008-09 Budget represents approximately 91% of the General Fund capital budget; maintenance improvements represent nearly 7%, and the balance is comprised of funding for new and replacement operating equipment and information technology.

Capital Projects Fund:

The Capital Projects Fund finances the costs associated with major maintenance and repair of the District’s facilities and equipment.

The four main projects in this Fund are:

• Enhancement of the Integrated Library Systems Replacement Program
• Technology Replacements and Upgrades Program
• Building Repair and Maintenance Program
• Capital Construction Program

These expenditures will be funded by the following resources: ending fund balance, transfers from the General Fund, interest and investment income.

Grants Fund and Gifts Fund:    

Used to account for expenditures with restrictions, such as funds received from federal, state or other grants, or to honor the intention or request of a person or institution making a gift or donation to the District.

What Is the Present Financial Environment?

Over the last several years, the service area for the District has experienced tremendous growth in population which became a primary driver for increased circulation and use of its facilities by the public.

While this is good news to the District, success brings its own challenges. The existing facilities are nearly at capacity and the District must find ways to meet the demand for its services.

Through careful management of District resources coupled with automating some routine functionality, the District has been able to manage increased use in services with minimal hiring of new staff. However, demand continues to be high in developing areas of the community where the District does not have library branches.

In the past, voters approved the issue of bonds to build new libraries to keep pace with growth. The voters chose not to approve a bond issue in 2003, and subsequent research by the District found that while area residents supported the District, they did not want new taxes levied to pay for new facilities to accommodate the growth.  Area residents felt the District should limit expansion of new facilities to those that could be “afforded” within existing revenue streams.

As a result, the Board of Trustees has encouraged lean operating practices with the intention that any resulting savings will be “banked” to fund major maintenance renovations of existing facilities and the addition of new facilities. These prudent operating practices, coupled with the extraordinary growth in revenues that accompany the growth experienced in the region, have resulted in the District being able to save enough money to tackle the projects in the Capital Projects Fund.

Between 2004 and 2008, the District has been able to transfer $45,130,000 from the General Fund into its Capital Projects Fund. And for Fiscal year 2008-2009, the District has budgeted to transfer $16.3 million to its Capital Projects Fund.

These transfers have funded the District’s construction of the Centennial Hills Library, efficiency remodels and the ongoing commitment to its Integrated Library Systems, technology replacement and upgrades, major building maintenance and repair as well as its capital construction projects. This dynamic growth in Southern Nevada has provided the opportunity for the District to fund substantial improvements with revenues generated by this growth.

What Challenges Does the District Face?

When it comes to new buildings and/or renovations, there are three main areas to be evaluated:

• The District’s ability to maintain any new facilities without eroding resources for existing facilities
• The recent escalations in building materials costs
• Consideration of recent efforts to constrain tax revenues that support state and local government services and in context with the changing economic environment in Southern Nevada.

During the 2005 session of the Nevada Legislature, a property tax cap was adopted that essentially limited the increase in taxes to 3% for owner-occupied residential property and to 8% for all other properties. New growth comes onto the tax roll at full taxable value. It is new growth that has largely driven the increase in property tax revenues for the District which would otherwise be limited by the cap.

Beyond that, there is a continuing effort by citizen groups to further reduce growth in governmental expenditures. While any initiative limiting taxes would not become effective for at least five years because such an initiative must be approved twice by the voters, it is possible that the Legislature may choose to act to limit taxes in a manner to keep expenditure-constraining measures within the purview of the Legislature.

Improvement Plan Documents