In the coming year, services and materials at Sno-Isle libraries on Whidbey Island will begin to disappear or degrade in ways library users are not used to seeing.

Facing an $800,000 shortfall in its budget just months after a levy vote failed to raise additional revenue, Sno-Isle is starting to send its top managers out to tell patrons that there may not be able to use their libraries as often as they would like in 2004.

On June 17, the bad news will come to South Whidbey, when Sno-Isle holds a public forum at the Freeland Library to dish out the bad news.

What they will hear is news about what they will lose and what it will take to get it back. According to Mary Kelly, a spokesperson for the library system, library patrons can expect shorter open hours at their libraries next year. They should also expect to be using the same computers the libraries have for Internet and catalog searching for at least a few years more.

“They won’t be invisible changes next year,” said Kelly, pointing out Sno-Isle’s need to cut back on staff hours and new computer purchases.

Cost cutting, she said, has almost reached its limit. Kelly said Sno-Isle has cut or deferred expenses at its libraries by about $2.5 million over the past two years. But now, with the system’s property tax levy rate at 47.5 cents per $1,000 of property value, the system is experiencing an effective cut in its revenue stream. Sno-Isle tried to get voters to approve a rate of 50 cents per $1,000 in February, but the measure failed by 2,637 votes. Island County voters cast their ballots narrowly in favor of the tax increase, but “no” votes from Snohomish County eclipsed that edge on the “yes” side.

While Sno-Isle will take in about $23 million in tax dollars next year — it’s highest amount ever — that figure is only a 1-percent increase over this year due to voter Initiative 747. At the same time, Kelly said, expenses like heath benefits for Sno-Isle’s 400-plus employees, are up. That additional expense alone will cost the library system an extra $400,000 this year.

Other services, in addition to technology and library hours, could be cut in the coming year, but Kelly said Sno-Isle does not yet want to speculate on those publicly.

Sno-Isle may try another ballot issue later this year or early in 2004, but that will not bail the 20-library system out in time for the coming year’s budget.