As a result of canceled donations from Halfmoon Township, the Schlow Centre Region Library, 100 E. Beaver Ave., will fall more than $31,000 short of the its necessary funding in 2006.

The other five local municipalities must compensate for the library's budget shortfall.

Centre Region Council of Governments Executive Director Jim Steff said municipalities allocate funds proportionally based on the percent of items checked out by residents of each township.

The library serves State College and Ferguson, Harris, College, Patton and Halfmoon townships. Donations from the six participating municipalities add up to $891,604 -- 56 percent of the library's total operating budget.

Halfmoon's decision to withhold library funding poses a financial burden on the remaining five municipalities, which might have to "pick up the difference," Steff said.

Steff said Halfmoon's cancellation of its $31,384 share might force Schlow to make some major adjustments.

"If the participating townships cannot cover the difference," Steff said, "then the library will have to find some other revenue source."

Halfmoon Township Board of Supervisors member Jim Andrews said the board put the library budget issue on the backburner temporarily because Halfmoon Township's taxes have been raised recently.

"We have $10,000 set aside in direct donations to the Schlow Memorial Library for the year 2006; we just can't afford the $31,000 annually," Andrews said.

Andrews said he voted to fund the library, but other members did not.

"It's not that we don't want to help, it's that we would rather donate less money than what's being asked of us," he said.

Steff said the library might make up for lost donations by asking Centre County to increase contributions. It might also consider raising the late fees on overdue books, cutting back the library's hours of operation or buying fewer books.

Andrews said a majority of Halfmoon residents voted against library membership in a questionnaire conducted by the board. He added that township residents probably voted against library membership because of the inconvenience of traveling to downtown State College.

"Our number of library card holders went down, but our number of checkouts keeps going up," Andrews said.

Andrews said checkout numbers are on the rise because many people call the library to renew their books.

"Does it really take eight weeks to read the book, or are people renewing their checkouts because it's an inconvenience to get all the way over to the borough to return them?" he said.

He added that the township wishes to stop contributing to the library because its residents does not use it that frequently.

"Thirty-one thousand dollars -- that's more than we give to the fire department for a library that not everyone will use," Andrews said.

Schlow Library Director Betsy Allen said Halfmoon's decision to forgo its share of the budget would set the library back.

"Well, $31,000 is a lot of money," she said. "It means a lot of books we cannot buy."

Allen said Halfmoon Township has not had a very long history of supporting the library.

"The library is 48 years old, and the other municipalities started giving donations back in 1968," she said. "Halfmoon's only donated for a handful of years by comparison."

Allen said that even though the library is short on funding, it would not compensate by charging customers checkout fees or by making the public buy library cards.

"We're committed to having a free library service," Allen said. "And Halfmoon Township will be able to use our library regardless of whether they donate or not."