Title XVI Section 202-A:11, II requires that the library trustees shall “Prepare an annual budget indicating what support and maintenance of the free public library will be required out of public funds… ” Town officials and citizens can take advantage of the budgeting process to decide what it shall support and maintain in the town library. They may scrutinize library goals, performance, and plans. The budget committee does not use this advantage. It does not insist on getting the information it needs. It has no more information to work with than the selectboard has, which is not enough to enhance its ability to influence how library budgets get used.

Although the budgeting process should consist of planning for the next year's activities with estimated price tags attached, the library budgets show no signs of planning. Since libraries do not submit plans for their activities, the town manager sets the funding goal of each library without having plans to guide him. He presents to the committee a proposed “budget”, which is essentially the same that the libraries gave him. It is hardly more than the previous year's line item financial reports to which libraries make minor adjustments to reflect cost of living increases.

For the 2008 library budget, the town manager told the budget committee that he did not recommend an increase in the North Haverhill library funding because it did not have a computer. The budget committee and selectboard agreed. The library got no increase in funding. Since then the library decided to install a computer. This was probably a first instance of anyone in Haverhill using the power of the purse to influence a library. The insistence of the town manager or selectboard can do much to produce improvements when they choose to act.

Trustees of the four libraries, recently becoming anxious over public criticism, have begun to attend budget hearings. Despite this, they say little to defend their budgets. The budget committee does not ask hard questions of the trustees. Making short shrift of library funding requests, the committee does little more than rubberstamp the town manager's submission. Thus, the committee does not take advantage of a prime opportunity to exert influence over the libraries

Stagnation inevitably results from last year's report becoming next year's "budget". The reports show costs for salaries, books, utilities, and other line items, but contain no explanations, justifications, or descriptions of activities, programs, or plans. They introduce nothing new. Library reports simply repeat the budgets, which leave no one understanding what the libraries do and no one knowing whether the town is meeting the legal requirement that it appropriate sufficient money for the libraries to conduct adequate service. Nothing better illustrates an unthinking process than these library reports and "budgets".