By Wis. Stat. The check must then be deposited with the municipality in a fund under library board control. Wisconsin libraries are not allowed to maintain custody of government-appropriated funds. Our county pays all library funding to our library system for distribution to individual libraries. An additional requirement is that a system can only handle these payments if provided for in an agreement between the county and the library system or between the county and the municipality receiving the payment.
County boards respond to constituent needs.
Because this new law responds to the widely recognized need for greater library funding equity, it can be expected that county boards will comply with this law which expresses the needs of constituents and the will of the citizens of Wisconsin as represented by the legislature and governor. In the unlikely event of non-compliance, legal action to enforce the law could be brought by a municipality providing service to county residents and perhaps a harmed taxpayer. As long as at least one municipality in the county is exempt from the county library levy, county library funding is excluded from levy rate freeze calculations. The vast majority of Wisconsin counties either have at least one municipality that is exempt from the county library levy, or have municipalities that could exempt themselves. Our library will receive a significant increase in county funding when this part of the statutes takes affect.