On paper these libraries don’t look that different. Both serve around 80 thousand people but their spending per capita is wildly different. As of 2011, the Arlington Heights library had $177.29 to spend per person. In Cicero they had $20.97 per person – nearly nine times less. [see table below]
“No, it’s not fair but it just is,” Schoen said. “If you live in a poor community you don’t get as many property taxes as communities that have million dollar homes and pay a lot of taxes on their properties.”
Unlike Chicago Public Libraries which have a centralized funding system, nearly 90 percent of the money for suburban libraries comes from their local property tax dollars. The rest comes from public and private grants.
“Some libraries have people that do nothing but look for grants, or that’s a big part of their job, and we don’t have that resource here,” Schoen said.
Mary Johnson is the executive director of Corazon Community Services, a group that offers programs for youth and adults in Cicero. She said there’s little anyone can do about the way funding is allocated to public services, but she feels foundations too often place their priorities in Cicero’s next door neighbor, Chicago.
“I think neighborhoods like Cicero and Melrose Park and some others in the South Side have kind of become like the forgotten step children of Chicago,” Johnson said.