City of Troy — Public Library Funding Analysis, FY2000 – FY2025

Revenue, operating expenditures, and capital spending as reported in the City's Comprehensive / Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports.

Executive summary

If the City's capital needs were truly as dire as currently framed, you would expect to see growing transfers from the Library Fund into the Capital Projects Fund. You don't. Yet over the same period, operating expenditures — the cost of running the library — have ballooned from $2.1 M in FY2012 to $6.1 M in FY2025. That's an additional ~$4 M per year flowing into the library, while transfers to the Capital Projects Fund have remained roughly flat as a share of revenue. Where is all of this additional money actually going?

Overview

The City of Troy reports its public library finances differently in three distinct eras. This page summarizes where library figures live in each ACFR, reproduces the year-by-year totals from FY2000 through FY2025, and answers the question of whether the City breaks library spending into operating vs. capital expense.

Where Library figures live:
FY2000 – FY2011: line item inside the General Fund (under Culture & Recreation), titled Library or Library and museum.
FY2012 – FY2025: dedicated Library Fund (special revenue fund) backed by a voter-approved millage. Each ACFR contains a standalone Budgetary Comparison Schedule – Library Fund.

Library Fund — revenue and spending by fiscal year

All figures are actual (not budget). Dollars. "Transfers out" is the Library Fund's contribution to the Capital Projects Fund, which the City uses to acquire collections and fund library facility work. The first percentage in each value cell is that item as a share of that fiscal year's revenue. In the Operating Expenditures column, the third line shows OpEx year-over-year change (green when up) / US CPI-U, June-over-June.

Library revenue and expenditures, FY2010 – FY2025
FY Reporting fund Total revenue Operating expenditures
("Recreation & culture")		 Transfers out
→ Capital Projects Fund		 ACFR page
2010General Fund (line item)— pooled —3,905,927— / +1.1%—p. 17
2011General Fund (line item)— pooled —2,288,355−41.4% / +3.6%—scanned (OCR)
2012Library Fund3,355,9352,135,100
63.6% of rev−6.7% / +1.7%		467,911
13.9% of rev		p. 96
2013Library Fund3,295,9932,266,410
68.8% of rev+6.2% / +1.8%		590,556
17.9% of rev		p. 99
2014Library Fund3,338,9972,436,972
73.0% of rev+7.5% / +2.1%		638,751
19.1% of rev		p. 108
2015Library Fund3,441,8982,663,090
77.4% of rev+9.3% / +0.1%		776,218
22.6% of rev		p. 111
2016Library Fund3,487,2212,729,910
78.3% of rev+2.5% / +1.0%		748,970
21.5% of rev		p. 114
2017Library Fund3,466,4342,866,410
82.7% of rev+5.0% / +1.6%		806,363
23.3% of rev		p. 116
2018Library Fund3,550,3772,957,814
83.3% of rev+3.2% / +2.9%		773,912
21.8% of rev		p. 119
2019Library Fund3,657,3183,192,416
87.3% of rev+7.9% / +1.6%		917,827
25.1% of rev		p. 124
2020Library Fund3,752,7343,114,340
83.0% of rev−2.4% / +0.6%		595,000
15.9% of rev		p. 125
2021Library Fund3,762,7003,294,231
87.5% of rev+5.8% / +5.4%		611,369
16.2% of rev		p. 125
2022Library Fund6,011,6563,960,758
65.9% of rev+20.2% / +9.1%		932,890
15.5% of rev		p. 124
2023Library Fund6,509,5704,432,739
68.1% of rev+11.9% / +3.0%		904,545
13.9% of rev		p. 97
2024Library Fund7,211,5885,247,367
72.8% of rev+18.4% / +3.0%		1,093,529
15.2% of rev		p. 93
2025Library Fund7,753,5406,067,487
78.3% of rev+15.6% / +2.7%		1,159,339
15.0% of rev		p. 92
Total
FY2012–25		Library Fund only62,595,96147,365,04411,017,180 

Reading the percentages: "% of rev" is that year's value divided by that year's Library Fund revenue. The remainder (100% − OpEx% − Transfers%) is the net change in Library Fund balance for that year. The total row covers only the years the Library Fund has existed (FY2012 – FY2025); FY2010 and FY2011 are shown for historical context but have no isolated revenue.

YoY vs CPI: The FY2011 drop and FY2012 step-down straddle fund-structure changes (Library and museum moved out of the General Fund into a new Library Fund; museum operations split off). FY2013 onward is a clean year-over-year comparison within the Library Fund. CPI-U source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U, 12-month change at June.

Property taxes are the dominant revenue source every year (~90%+ once the Library Fund exists). The remainder is State aid, library fines and fees, charges for services, and investment earnings. The step-up in FY2022 reflects a renewed/expanded library millage — Library Fund property tax revenue jumps from $3.5 M (FY2021) to $5.85 M (FY2022).

Is Library spending broken into CapEx vs. OpEx?

Not on a single page. The presentation depends on the era:

Era 1 — FY2000 to FY2002 explicit Library CapEx line

The Capital Projects Fund's Statement of Revenues, Expenditures and Changes in Fund Balance — Budget and Actual breaks capital expenditures out by function, and one of those functions is "Library and museum." This is the only era where you can read library CapEx straight off a single page.

FYLibrary & Museum CapEx (actual)BudgetSource
2000533,940976,856CAFR p. 91 (Capital Projects Fund)
2001337,276659,440CAFR p. 91
2002903,7391,556,733CAFR p. 95

Era 2 — FY2003 to FY2011 CapEx aggregated

Starting FY2003, the Capital Projects Fund's budgetary schedule collapses all function-level capital lines into a single "Capital outlay" line — likely tied to GASB 34 implementation. Library CapEx is no longer separately visible at the fund level. However, library book acquisitions continue and are visible in the capital assets footnote (Notes to Financial Statements) as the dedicated line "Library books / audio-visual."

Library book / AV additions (capitalized, from capital-asset rollforward)
FYLibrary book additions
2003417,419
2004735,040
2005734,289
2006740,014
2007707,456
2008732,107
2009739,872
2010709,227
2011296,778

These purchases were expensed at the fund level inside the General Fund's Library and museum operating budget and capitalized at the government-wide level. They did not flow through the Capital Projects Fund during this era.

Era 3 — FY2012 onward CapEx via transfers to Capital Projects Fund

After the dedicated library millage created the Library Fund in FY2012, library CapEx is once again routed through the Capital Projects Fund, but now via Transfers Out from the Library Fund (the rightmost column of the table at the top of this page — $468 K to $1.16 M per year). Big projects (e.g., FY2020 library roof replacement, ~$1.2 M; FY2023–25 renovations) and ongoing collection purchases use this conduit.

Within the Library Fund schedule itself, expenditures are reported as a single "Current — Recreation and culture" line. That is the operating budget (staff, materials, utilities, programs). There is no separate "Capital outlay" line inside the Library Fund. To reconstruct a CapEx vs. OpEx view, add the Library Fund's operating expenditures (OpEx) and its Transfers Out to Capital Projects (CapEx proxy).

Pattern: where did Library CapEx flow, decade by decade?

EraYearsLibrary CapEx routingVisibility in ACFR
1 FY2000 – FY2002 Capital Projects Fund, dedicated "Library and museum" line Direct, single-page
2 FY2003 – FY2011 General Fund operating budget (books); large facility work buried in aggregated Capital Projects Fund "Capital outlay" Only via capital-asset footnote
3 FY2012 – present Library Fund → Transfers Out → Capital Projects Fund Library Fund's Transfers Out column

Total identifiable Library CapEx, FY2000 – FY2025

Each row shows the best CapEx figure that can be read out of that year's ACFR. The three eras measure different things, so this total is a floor — caveats below the table.

FY Identifiable Library CapEx What this row captures
2000533,940Capital Projects Fund — "Library and museum" line
2001337,276Capital Projects Fund — "Library and museum" line
2002903,739Capital Projects Fund — "Library and museum" line
2003417,419"Library books / AV" additions (capital-asset rollforward)
2004735,040Library books / AV additions
2005734,289Library books / AV additions
2006740,014Library books / AV additions
2007707,456Library books / AV additions
2008732,107Library books / AV additions
2009739,872Library books / AV additions
2010709,227Library books / AV additions
2011296,778Library books / AV additions
2012467,911Library Fund → Transfers Out to Capital Projects Fund
2013590,556Library Fund transfers out
2014638,751Library Fund transfers out
2015776,218Library Fund transfers out
2016748,970Library Fund transfers out
2017806,363Library Fund transfers out
2018773,912Library Fund transfers out
2019917,827Library Fund transfers out
2020595,000Library Fund transfers out (see note 3)
2021611,369Library Fund transfers out
2022932,890Library Fund transfers out
2023904,545Library Fund transfers out
20241,093,529Library Fund transfers out
20251,159,339Library Fund transfers out
Era 1 subtotal1,774,955FY2000 – FY2002
Era 2 subtotal5,812,202FY2003 – FY2011
Era 3 subtotal11,017,180FY2012 – FY2025
Grand total$18,604,33726 fiscal years
The $18.6 M is a floor, not a ceiling. What's missing from this total:
  1. Era 1 (FY2000 – FY2002): The Capital Projects Fund line covers facility and equipment work for library and museum, but library collection purchases that flowed through the General Fund's Library operating budget — and were capitalized at the government-wide level — are not in this number. From the capital-asset rollforward, FY2000 alone shows $1.48 M of library-book additions, far above the $534 K booked in Capital Projects.
  2. Era 2 (FY2003 – FY2011): Captures only book / AV additions. Any library facility or equipment CapEx during this era is hidden inside the Capital Projects Fund's aggregated "Capital outlay" line (~$11–56 M/yr across all functions) and cannot be isolated from the ACFR alone.
  3. Era 3 (FY2012 – FY2025): The Library Fund transfers do not include General Fund or other contributions to library capital projects. The clearest example: FY2020 library roof replacement — $1.2 M actual, funded mainly by a $2.0 M General Fund contribution to the Capital Projects Fund, on top of the Library Fund's $595 K transfer that year.

Source documents

All CAFRs / ACFRs as published by the City of Troy, MI. Files are mirrored in this repo where size permits; the three oversized scanned PDFs (FY2000 – FY2002, 33–34 MB each) link to the City's CMS.

FY2000s

FY2010s

FY2020s