Debunking the Jones Library Banner

The banner on the fencing along the Jones Library expansion project’s construction fencing on Amity Street belongs in the fiction section. This version of a fundraising thermometer lowballs what is left to raise by about $3 million, and that’s IF the project doesn’t go over budget.  

Misleading Imagery
The three sources of funding for the project are the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC), the Town of Amherst, and the Jones Library Capital Campaign. However, the banner’s graphic of a bookshelf leads the viewer to believe that the Capital Campaign will be contributing nearly half of the cost for the project – a misrepresentation that generously belongs in the “pants on fire” category. Even the figures on the banner, which are themselves inaccurate,  contradict this image. 

Bad Math
The total project cost is given as $46,139,800 which is indeed the amount of money that the Amherst Town Council authorized in borrowing for this project. However, two out of three of the source amounts on the banner are incorrect, and they add up to $47,139,800. 

MBLC: $15,565,472 correct!

Town: $15,751,810 wrong

Library: $15,822,518 wrong

Total: $47,139,800 wrong

Trustees Count Amherst Taxpayer Funds as Their Contribution 
The town figure ($15,751,810) is what Town Council President Lynn Griesemer has promised numerous times is the amount the Amherst taxpayers will contribute “and not a penny more”. Notably, this figure fails to account for the $1,000,000 the Town Council authorized in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding in FY 2021,

But this is ALSO Amherst taxpayer money. So, either the principal amount coming from Amherst taxpayers is really $16,751,810 or the $1 million in CPA funds should actually reduce the Town’s portion to $14,751,810. We’ll put a pin in the fact that the library trustees are currently asking for another $1,252,306 in CPA funds for FY 2027. The trustees consider these taxpayer funds as “fundraising”, and count them toward their portion of the cost, not the town’s.

Fundraising Expenses Are Not Project Costs
The other million dollar problem is how to count the money that is being spent on fundraising. The library is responsible for paying these costs. The November 2023 cash flow analysis (the most recent one that exists) includes a line for $1,050,000 in capital campaign expenses. The banner does acknowledge that this is the library’s burden: under the “Still to Raise” figure ($7,836,020), some fine print reads “includes expenses”. This amount plus “Committed Funds” ($39,303,780) adds up to $47,139,800. But should fundraising expenses be expressed as part of the total cost of a project? Total project cost generally refers to the design and construction process. Additionally, do all donors understand that when they are being asked to give money to the project, a not insignificant portion of that contribution (around 7%) will not go directly to the project but to pay for fundraising? 

What Does “Committed” Mean?
Some of the most difficult information to pin down is the actual amount of money the library has received. The banner claims that as of September 2025, there was ~$39 million in “Committed Funds”. The MBLC and Town/FY 2021 CPA funds total ~$32 million and about $4 million have reportedly been transferred from the library to the town to date, but where is the other $3 million in “committed” funds? The September 2025 Capital Campaign report lists ~$3.8 million in “pledges”. With the exception of the receipt of ~$1.1 million in federal (HUD) grant money in September 2025, this amount (variably labelled “intentions”, “pledges”, etc) has remained relatively unchanged for nearly 20 months. This static figure begs the following questions:

• What is the nature of the other $3M+ in “committed funds”? 
• If these are the “pledges”, why have they not been received yet? 
• Is “hoped for” a more accurate term than “committed”?

Bottom Lines
Funds that could be classified as either guaranteed/received total ~$36.4 million out of the $46.1 million total project cost, leaving $10.7 million for the trustees “Still to Raise” (assuming $1 million in fundraising expenses), not the $7.8 million stated on the banner.

One could genuinely wonder about whether the trustees spinning figures on a banner is our biggest problem. How much difference does it make for fundraising to be $8 million or $11 million underwater? At the end of the day, we (the town) are still going to be sitting at the bottom of an ocean of debt.