NATCHEZ — A lot has changed since 1997, but Susan Cassagne said that is the year to which she might have to return.

Cassagne, the director of Armstrong Library, learned during the recent City of Natchez budget public hearing that the millage for the library could be cut to 2.25 mills of funding. Previously the library was funded at 2.575 mills, Cassagne said.

The cut, Cassagne said, could result in as much as $35,000 of lost funding for the library for a total budget of approximately $254,250, which would be the equivalent of the funding the library received in 1997.

Additionally, Cassagne said she just recently learned that the millage rate at which the library was funded in the current fiscal year was also cut.

“Right now I may be $45,000 in the hole for this year,” Cassagne said.

The library receives a funding check monthly from the city and in the final month of the fiscal check, Cassange said, the library receives an additional check that reflects the balance of the money collected for the library from city taxes.

“I don’t know if that check is going to come this year or not,” she said. “At this point, I just don’t know.”

City Clerk Donnie Holloway said the board of alderman has the authority to change the millage rate, but Cassagne said she can’t find that vote in the official minutes.

Cassagne said since 2005 the library has been funded through a designated millage from the city. The millage rate was set at 2.575 mills that year, and, she said she was never informed that the rate was changed.

A reported published in The Natchez Democrat on Sept. 29, 2005, stated the city voted to increase the millage by 5.5 mills that year, 2.575 mills of that were dedicated for library funding.

When, Cassagne e-mailed the city clerk’s office in August to determine the value of a mill for the next budget year, she included in the e-mail that she would base her budget on the 2.575 millage rate.

“I wasn’t even informed then that my millage rate wasn’t at 2.575 mills anymore,” she said.

Holloway said the change in millage rate was made after a state-mandated property reassessment last year. At that time, Cassagne said she was told the value of one mill increased to $116,142.

This year one mill is valued at $113,000, Holloway said.

“Before (the assessment) we put the millage at $255,000 (in funding), and what the board did was decided to leave it at $255,000,” Holloway said of last year’s library funding. “What happens is it may come in a little less or a little more.

“It is something we can’t predict. It depends on who pays their taxes, the number of car tags sold and other things.”

Cassagne, who has been the library director since 2002, said since going to designated-millage funding as opposed to an allocation, the exact receipt from the city varies.

“I want to know where the communication breakdown occurred,” Cassagne said.

The library has been funded by the city since 1990. Prior to that, the library was funded by a partnership between the city and Adams County. In 1990, entities that were dually funded was split, Cassagne said.

“The city got the library, and the county got the airport,” she said.

The funding from the city also determines the funding the library receives from the Mississippi Library Commission. Cassagne said if the library’s municipal funding is cut for two years in a row, they are in danger of losing MLC funding.

MLC funding comes from the Personnel Incentive Grant Program. It can be used only for personnel related expenses and does not cover all personnel expenses.

Cassagne said she is hopeful a compromise can be met in terms of city funding for the library, but said she is planning for a worst-case scenario.

“I’ve had to scramble and put together alternate budgets for my administrative board to look at because at this point I just don’t know what is coming,” she said.

Cassagne said the library, if funding is not fully restored, will have to consider increasing costs to patrons in the form of higher book fines and higher printing and copying fees.

“We really serve the economically disadvantaged,” she said. “We serve the people who can’t afford to absorb additional expenses. Students are in here in the afternoons typing feverishly to get finished with homework or papers for school. What happens if we aren’t open when their parents get home and can bring them to the library to do homework?”

Cassagne said she will also have to consider reducing hours of operation, services offered and even staff.

“Traditionally, elected officials are not the ones who use the services of a public library,” she said. “If they are not in here to see what we do, who we serve, then we have to prove ourselves.”

In August 2010, the library had 4,024 total visits.

From Oct. 1, 2009 to Aug. 31, the library had 42,248 visitors, 28,073 people used the public access computers, 43,965 items were checked out of the library’s collections and 821 new library cards were issued.

“We let people walk out of here with $250 worth of items, just with a hope and prayer that they will return them,” she said. “Most of my expenses are set, so the only wiggle room I have in my budget is with supplies and programs.”

The board of aldermen will meet at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the City Council Chambers on South Pearl Street.

Cassagne said she is urging patrons and supporters of the library to be present at the meeting.

“I want people to see the value of the library,” she said.