CACHE COUNTY – Among the budget cuts being proposed by Cache County Executive George Daines for 2026 is defunding the Cache County Library at 15 North Main in Providence to the tune of $250,000 a year, which would effectively shutter the facility.
But the library’s small staff and patrons aren’t going quietly into oblivion. Instead, they are fighting back.
Even before Daines announced his tentative list of budget cut on Oct. 14, the library’s staff hosted a letter-writing party to members of the Cache County Council on Oct. 11.
More than 250 people participated in that four-hour session and another more than 1,200 people sent responses online, according to Brynnan Sainsbury, director of the Cache County Library.
Whether those messages will fall on deaf ears at the council level – where the county is facing a $7.6 million budget shortfall for next year — is anybody’s guess. But council member David L. Erickson has seemingly already made up his mind.
Erickson agrees with Daines that the county library facility primarily serves residents of Providence, River Heights and Millville due to its proximity to them, but believes that similar services could be provided by online applications.
Council member Mark Hurd disagrees, citing the Cache County Library as the only facility of its kind available to all county residents for free.
The county executive disputes that description, however, saying that none of library services available in Cache Valley are exactly “free.”
Daines’ rationale for the proposed library budget cut is that 80 percent of county residents are already being taxed to support various municipal libraries. From south to north, those facilities are in Hyrum, Mendon, Logan, North Logan, Smithfield, Richmond and Lewiston.
Since Cache County also taxes its residents for library service, he questions whether it’s fair that residents of those towns should be double-taxed to provide services to 20 percent of Cache residents not served by these municipal libraries.
Recent analysis by Deputy Executive Curt Webb has also revealed that 70 percent of Cache County Library business comes from the cities of Providence, River Heights and Millville, all of which have chosen not to fund their own municipal libraries, along with Paradise and Hyde Park.
The question of continued funding for the Cache County Library is scheduled to be addressed at the next meeting of the county council on Tuesday, Oct. 28, along with the rest of Daines’ recommended budget cuts.
Since taking office on Sept. 16, Daines has been wrestling with the county’s budget, which is facing a $7.6 million budget shortfall for 2026.
In joint efforts with County Auditor Matt Fund and department heads, Daines recommended a total of $2.8 million in budget cuts, including defunding the library, at the council meeting on Oct. 14.
Later in the same meeting, council chair Sandi Goodlander formally announced Cache County’s intent to levy a property tax rate increase of 10 percent next year, which would generate more than $3.7 million in new revenue to fund inflationary increases in personnel and pubic safety expenses.
That additional revenue, combined with the $2.8 million in budget cuts recommended by Daines, would still leave Cache County with a budget deficit exceeding $1 million.
But Daines added that he expects to be able to recommend additional budget cuts to council members at their next meeting on Oct. 28.
Sainsbury is urging patrons of the Cache County Library to turn out for that Oct. 28 meeting to tell the council members to vote no on defunding the library.