Last year, even as the stunning $165 million Central Library earned Seattle a brief moment in the national spotlight, the budget for the library system itself continued to stagnate, forcing deep cuts in hours and book purchasing at a time when seven new and renovated branches were opening their doors. In the past five years, even as library memberships and borrowing have increased, the library's budget has been slashed, forcing library staff to cut hours and even close some branches altogether.

This year, for the first time in several years, the city has a budget surplus ($55 million). Given the dire condition of Seattle's library system, it came as a surprise to some city council members that the mayor dedicated not one dime of that windfall to the library—its budget for staffing and collections has been cut or stayed stable every year since 2002. Council member Peter Steinbrueck says he is "hugely disappointed to learn that the mayor didn't add a single penny for libraries." Even as Seattle "pretends to be the nation's greatest library system," he says, "we can't even keep the libraries open."

Many council members say the mayor's seeming indifference toward the library is unacceptable in a city that prides itself on a first-class library system. Last week, council members proposed five different plans to increase the number of hours the library is open; the plans, which range in cost from $283,000 (the cheapest of three proposals by Richard Conlin) to $1.8 million (Steinbrueck) vary in which branches they would keep open longer, and when. In addition, the council is likely to propose a $1 million subsidy to buy books and periodicals at the library—its book budget has stagnated since 2004 at $2.8 million.

It's hard to dispute the need for more library hours. Since 2000, weekly hours at the library's 26 branches have been cut from more than 1,300 to fewer than 950, with 19 branches closed on Sunday and all 26 closed on Mondays and Tuesdays until 1:00 p.m. (The seven branches that are open on Sundays are open just four hours, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.)

Andra Addison, spokeswoman for the library system, was diplomatic about the mayor's priorities, but noted that Seattle has half the book budget of comparably sized cities like San Francisco ($5.8 million) and Denver ($5.4 million) and gets "a lot of complaints" from people who don't understand why their library branch isn't open more often. Elderly people, Addison notes, like to go to the library in the morning; in addition, Steinbrueck points out, students need libraries to be open on Sundays so they can finish their homework before Monday morning. (Libraries are also one of the few free forms of entertainment available in the city, which is why people both criticize them for serving as unofficial homeless shelters and praise them for providing a valuable service for people who don't have the money to buy computers and books.)

Some on the council, including budget chairman Richard McIver, are reluctant to dramatically increase the library's budget now. A McIver staffer notes that changes in the state business and occupation tax are expected to blow a $15 million hole in the city's budget in 2008, raising the question of whether the council should hire new employees it may have to lay off two years later. And while McIver reportedly supports adding $1 million for book collections (as budget chair, he is taking no official position on any library-funding proposal), he wants to make $500,000 of that contingent on matching funds from the nonprofit Seattle Public Library Foundation, for a total of $1.5 million. The foundation's director, Terry Collings, says he has heard "nothing" about any such matching-grant proposal.

Steinbrueck, who calls the $500,000 match "an insult to the [library] foundation," says his $2.8 million plan is a modest funding package that would "get us back to historical levels" of book funding and library hours. "It's sustainable if we make it sustainable," Steinbrueck says. "If we only give half the pie [to the library system], that's all it's going to be next year, because the mayor is not taking libraries very seriously." The council traditionally adopts the budget in late November, shortly after Thanksgiving.

barnett@thestranger.com