The Porter County Public Library System will shorten the hours of operation at most locations later this year to prepare for the fiscal impacts of the state’s property tax cut law.
Senate Enrolled Act 1 was a property tax bill that will save two-thirds of taxpayers up to $300 on their 2026 property tax bill while local governments will lose $1.4 billion through 2028. Gov. Mike Braun signed the bill into law April 15 and called it a “historic” plan to reduce property taxes for most Hoosier homeowners while limiting future tax hikes and making the tax system fairer and more transparent.
As library staff considered changes to hours of operation, which go into effect Nov. 1, they reviewed data on visitor numbers, material check-outs, technology use, program attendance and facility use, said Porter County Public Library System director Jesse Butz.
“We tried to make as minimal an impact on patrons as we possibly could,” Butz said. “It’s unfortunate. I wish that I could afford all the hours. If it was up to me, we would be open 24 hours a day seven days a week.”
The new hours at the Hebron Branch will be Monday and Wednesday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed Sunday, according to a press release.
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At the Kouts Branch, the new hours will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed Saturday and Sunday, according to the release.
The new hours at the Portage Branch will be Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m to 5 p.m., according to the release.
At the South Haven Branch, the new hours will be Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed Sunday, according to the release.
The new hours at the Larry J. Clark Genealogy Center will be Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed Friday and Sunday, according to the release.
The Valparaiso branch hours will remain the same, according to the release.
Changing the hours of operation will save the library system hundreds of thousands of dollars, Butz said. No one will be laid off as a result of the shift in the hours of operation, Butz said.
“We’re trying to reassign staff where the work is and allow natural attrition to pull our numbers down as people leave,” Butz said. “It’s a nice way for us to be fiscally responsible with Porter County tax dollars in a way that doesn’t negatively impact staff and minimizes the impact on the community.”
As the library plans future budgets amid Senate Enrolled Act 1, Butz said it’s likely more shifts will be needed, like fewer programs or foregoing some facility upgrades.
To further mitigate against Senate Enrolled Act 1, the library has a hiring freeze in place for non-essential positions, which helps the library maintain pay for employees with the cost of living, Butz said.
“We have to take all these things into account,” Butz said. “The goal behind this is to make it so we can have measured decisions that allow us to not have to take austerity measures.”
If the state legislature were to make changes to the property tax law to increase funding for local governments and entities, Butz said he would expand hours if he had the funds, resources and community needs.
“I think we’re being very proactive here. We try to be ahead of the curve so that we don’t have to make drastic changes in the future,” Butz said.
Area libraries respond
In Crown Point, officials have started the 2026 budget process, but hours won’t be impacted, said Crown Point Community Library Director Julie Wendorf.
As Senate Enrolled Act 1 takes effect, libraries across the state have started shifting hours, firing staff or implementing hiring freezes, said Wendorf, who is also the Indiana Library Federation President. Some libraries also stopped building projects they had “ready to go” to save money, she said.
The hardest hit libraries will be in rural areas, Wendorf said, because they have small budgets already so further reduction will negatively impact them.
“It makes me concerned for libraries in the state of Indiana being able to have stable funding to continue services that are important to their communities,” Wendorf said. “Libraries have been a great return on investment on the tax dollars. We have been asked to do more with less, and libraries have always been experts at doing more with less.”
In Hammond, the library will remain steady financially in the short term, said Hammond Public Library interim director Cornell White. But, by 2030, White said the budget will likely be impacted as operational costs, like utilities, increase and the library’s budget doesn’t increase, he said.
“I see a lot of our problems being, in the future, will be our prices going up. If prices are going up and our revenue is staying the same, essentially, it’s a budget cut without there being one,” White said.
The Lake County Public Library has been preparing for Senate Enrolled Act 1 by reviewing staff, collections and service contracts, said executive director Carol Daumer Gutjahr.
“We’ve just been making small, slow changes. Nothing drastic,” Gutjahr said.
The Lake County Public Library likely won’t change hours of operation because he hours of operations were adjusted to one shift for staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gutjahr said.
“When we received the impact of Senate Enrolled Act 1, I felt it was not wise to extend the hours, even though we have patrons that would like those six locations to be open a little longer and I would love to do that. When we saw the forecast of potential funding issues, it just made sense to keep those locations at their current schedule,” Gutjahr said.
Lake County library staff are working with a financial institution to create a financial outlook for the next 3 to 5 years, Gutjahr said, “to see what the projected impact is to our budget.”
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“We’re just trying to be very cautious and evaluate things as they are being presented to us,” Gutjahr said.