PASSAIC -- City councilmen are remaining quiet about whether they will give library officials the $1.2 million they requested for the current budget year.

Councilman Gerardo Fernandez, a member of the budget committee, said in a telephone interview Thursday that the council was still discussing the matter.

"The problem is that there is not enough money to go around for everyone. We'll have to see what else we can cut," he said.

Council President Gary Schaer and Councilman Chaim Munk, budget committee chairman, did not return telephone calls for comment.

The council introduced its $78.3 million fiscal budget, which runs from July 2007 to June 2008, at its Sept. 25 meeting. The preliminary spending plan carries a municipal tax levy of $49.3 million, about 12 percent up from the previous year's budget.

At last week's city budget hearing, Interim Library Board President Cyndi Schoenbrun and Library Director Alan Bobowski said that if the council did not fund the library at higher levels next year, it would be in danger of losing its state funding.

In order to qualify for state aid, the library must meet certain requirements, such as staying open for 60 hours a week, keeping at least five professional librarians on staff and spending $6,900 to buy new books every year.

"We won't be able to meet our criteria if they cut our budget," Schoenbrun said Thursday in a telephone interview. "We spent all our cash reserves to meet the criteria in previous years."

Bobowski and Schoenbrun told the council that if the library does not receive at least $1.2 million, it could lose up to $84,000 in state aid from the New Jersey State Library in Trenton.

Since 2004, the city's appropriation to the library has been cut or flat-funded. The city has allocated $1,090,000 in funding -- the same as it did last year -- according to preliminary budget figures.

The library board has proposed a number of moves in recent years to save money, including shuttering the Reid Memorial Branch Library or privatizing it, but both proposals were shot down by a public outcry.

The library has depleted nearly all of its cash reserves, with just $28,000 left, Bobowski and Schoenbrun said. Meanwhile, the library has added a number of new services, including a bookmobile, teen after-school tutoring, and English and Spanish second-language programs.

The next council meeting will be on Dec. 18.

Reach Meredith Mandell at (973) 569-7107 or mandell@northjersey.com.