Princeton officials to library: Want more funding? End free two-hour parking (updated)

Trustees given until April 20 to decide whether to eliminate validated parking at Spring Street Garage

The board of trustees for Princeton Public Library was told at its April 15 meeting that it could receive the $149,000 needed to balance its budget this year by eliminating the free parking benefit for library patrons at Spring Street Garage.

Currently, all library cardholders can park in the garage for up to two hours if they have their parking validated at the library.

Mayor Mark Freda, who serves on the board of trustees but did not attend the Friday emergency meeting, discussed the plan at the trustee meeting along with other trustees. A formal letter outlining the proposal was sent to the trustees from the Princeton Council finance committee, which is chaired by Councilman Brian McDonald.

Under the plan, the library would receive the additional $149,000 needed for its 2026 budget to prevent further cuts if validated parking is eliminated for all cardholders.

If free parking is eliminated only for out-of-town cardholders, the library would receive $50,000, according to the letter.

The library was given an extremely short deadline — until Monday, April 20 — to decide on the proposal. The library board of trustees held an emergency meeting on Friday, April 17, but did not take action on the finance committee’s request.

Former Princeton Council member Tim Quinn noted in a letter to the editor that it is the municipality, not the library, that controls the Spring Street Garage. In the past, the Princeton Council has voted on whether to continue the free parking program.

“Putting aside the fact that the library neither owns nor operates Spring Street Garage, I now fear this latest dictate from the municipality is setting the library up for ‘a death by a thousand cuts’ scenario,” Quinn wrote in his letter to Planet Princeton. “As a longtime middle-class resident, now a retiree on a fixed income, further cuts would be bad for me and for others who rely on library services to lower their cost of living in a town and state where such costs are among the highest.”

The issue was last debated in 2015, when eliminating the benefit was proposed. Public backlash led the council to keep the free parking at that time.

Parking has long been tied to debates over whether the library should remain in the center of town or move to a location with more parking. Some township residents favored the period when the library was temporarily located at the shopping center because of easier parking access. The free two-hour parking program was offered as a way to keep the library downtown while addressing parking concerns.

The proposal to eliminate the free parking comes as the Princeton Council considers adopting a proposed 2026 municipal budget of $84.8 million. The budget includes a 7% spending increase that municipal officials said is driven by a 36% rise in health insurance costs, salary increases, and debt service.

Yet despite those increases, the town has kept library funding flat. The library reduced hours earlier this year because of rising costs. More cuts will need to be made if the library does not receive an additional $149,000 for its budget.

“I see lawn signs throughout town proclaiming “Princeton For All,” something I think everyone supports,” Quinn wrote. “That said, I don’t know how cutting the one institution that serves everyone in our community, mostly for free, is consistent with achieving that goal.”

In an email about the issue to Planet Princeton, Freda said there was a communication to the library director that offered two potential options that could be recommended to the full governing body about the library operating budget. 

“Those options would help find offsetting revenues to the town to increase the amount of money from the town for this year’s library operating budget. So comments discussing those two options were made by many of us at the meeting,” Freda wrote.

“I would not so narrowly define the context of those ideas to mean the library would make the decision about parking.  Instead, the board was offered the opportunity to work with the town to find some middle ground on the library’s budget request,” Freda wrote. “The library director and board president had been told a year ago and again during 2025 that a zero percent increase was possible for 2026.  So very recently some options were provided that could potentially find a way to provide additional funding while keeping the overall tax increase down.”

Freda said the town’s practice with all the municipal departments is the same. “A budget request is made, there is a detailed review of the request and almost always ways to reduce the requests are found,” he wrote.

Editor’s note: Planet Princeton has reached out to Councilman Brian McDonald for comment on why the library board is being asked to make a decision that falls under the jurisdiction of the governing body.