By Jeff Lipton
I couldn't believe it, said Arleen Reo, library director, about the budget defeat. I've been here 20 years and I've never had this experience.
Library officials said they may be forced to cut programs, services and hours of operation after the proposed budget was defeated by a vote count of 2,383 against to 2,247 in favor. The budget proposal represented an increase of $80,430 over the current budget, and the taxes needed to be raised would have risen from $1,927,660 to $2,008,090, mainly driven by the mandatory increase of employee benefits. The proposed tax rate would have gone up from $1.69 to $1.76 per $100 of assessed valuation of a home.
Now that the budget has been voted down, library officials are somewhat baffled as to how to proceed, because this is the first time the budget had been defeated since 1959, Reo said. It will probably be put up a second time, they said, on the same ballot with the Lawrence Public Schools budget, which was also defeated June 3. The budgets most likely will be put up for a public vote on Monday, June 30. If they fail a second time, contingency will kick in on July 1, meaning the library will be forced onto austerity and have to adopt the same budget as the current operating budget.
Library officials said they felt they were hurt by a fierce backlash over the public's anger at the school budget. They also said the placement of the library budget on the ballot, in between the school budget and the proposed $20.7 million bond issue to repair the schools, which also went down in defeat, did not help their cause.
I'm disappointed, said Michael Fried, president of the Peninsula Public Library's Board of Trustees. I understand the issues surrounding the school budget, but the library is used by everyone in the community.
Fried said he doesn't understand how the library budget failed, since it would have meant an increase of about $2 per resident per year. Really, an $80,000 increase is nothing, he said. Obviously, when you look at our facilities, we don't have a whole lot of excesses. We don't order 20 copies of books the way Hewlett-Woodmere [Public Library] does. People should realize our per capita [tax rate] is among the lowest 20 percent in Nassau County.
Fried said that even though the budget was shot down, he is reluctant to cut it before it is put up for a second vote. He said he wants to meet with the rest of the library's Board of Trustees to decide what to do before taking action.
I'm not saying right now what we'll have to do, but if we cut the budget, it will be a significant reduction in services to the community, Fried said. It will kill me, and Arleen and the rest of the trustees, to do that. We are running on a shoestring budget as it is.
He added that one of the first things that would have to go is the library's bookmobile, which drains funds with salaries, benefits, gas and insurance. He also expressed fear that the hours of the library would have to be scaled back. Cutting back the hours of the library is something we did not want to do, Fried said. We want to be a seven-days-a-week library, which services everyone in the community. Everyone uses the library in one way, shape or form.
Ted Elsberg of Woodmere, who has been a critic of the Lawrence Public Schools budget, said the public was justified in defeating the school budget and bond issue as a show of protest at the poor fiscal and academic performance of School District 15.
The resentment and frustration of residents, however, spilled over to the vote on the Peninsula Public Library budget, he said in a Letter to the Editor. By a slim margin of 136 votes, the library was denied much needed and necessary funds to operate in a manner that will provide appropriate service to the community.
Unfortunately, the library suffered collateral budget damage in the explosive negative reaction to the District 15 school proposal, he added. The Peninsula Public Library needs and deserves our support in its budget request. It should be approved.
Reo agreed, saying the proposed library budget is not a radically large budget by any means. It is bare-bones.
She said the bulk of the increase stems from contractual agreements in the state retirement system and an increase of $35,900 in employee health, disability and dental insurance.
Personally, I'm shocked and dismayed at the vote, Reo said.
