Library proposes 2 percent increase

Following months of work, the West Hempstead Public Library and its Board of Trustees proposed a 2011-12 budget that would essentially require the average homeowner to pay an additional $12 dollars a year in taxes.

“It would be a dollar a month,” said library Director Regina Mascia. “That’s what we’re advertising.”

With a tax levy of 1.4 percent and at a total of $3,307,657, the library’s proposed budget increased by 2 percent over the 2010-11 budget — a number with which both Mascia and board trustees are pleased. “The board tried very hard to keep it at 2 percent,” Mascia said, “but they made me make $65,000 in cuts.”

The cuts were made primarily to programs, books and DVDs. While the library will still be acquiring new materials, it had to scale back some of its program offerings and make a $5,000 reduction in book-related costs. One area where library staff will tighten significantly, according to Mascia, is the Sunday concert series. “They’ll have to negotiate tougher,” she said. “We didn’t want to have to make the cuts, but the board, in order to keep it at a 2 percent increase, asked me to make some cuts that we could live with.”

Meanwhile, many of the library’s other programs are self-sustaining, circulation is continuously increasing and there is some state aid coming to the library.