Proposed Library Budget Shows Tax Increase

While the school budget process has been fraught with drama this year, the quietly put together a new operating budget that’s up for vote today.

The LML’s proposed operating budget – which it presented publicly last Tuesday evening – for fiscal year July 2011-June 2012 shows a 3.6 percent tax increase, after giving the community no increase for the past two years.

Residents will be able to vote until 9 p.m. today at the library on the proposed budget. Board Vice President Garry Biggs is also up for re-election, and is running unopposed.

LML Director Peter Ward attributed the increase to higher retirement and healthcare costs and lower revenue in the current fiscal year, ending June 30, 2011.

“This proposed budget will allow us to maintain operations here as they are now, and will allow us to continue to do innovative things,” Ward said. “Either way, we’ll do that. But we’re not standing pat. Be prepared for good things to come.”

He also characterized the tax increase this way: “It reflects an average $6.00 increase in taxes on a house assessed at an average $3,200 in Lindenhurst.”

The higher costs Ward referenced is contained in the salaries and benefits portion of the proposed budget it made available at last Tuesday’s meeting.

That portion of the expenditures is increasing from $3.16 million to $3.22 million in the proposed budget. Plus, the library is in talks with the CSEA. Those negotiations were discussed at the .

“We went into executive session to discuss collective bargaining,” Ward noted then, “and options regarding repair or replacement of the HVAC system on the roof.”

Indeed, the HVAC system is causing the capital improvements to increase significantly, from $5,000 to $155,000 in the proposed budget.

“The figure for capital improvements represents phase one of the HVAC project we are doing,” Ward explained.

The HVAC system on the roof is aging, and the improvements being considered are to make the library building – which came online, Ward said, in 1969 – more energy-efficient and up-to-date.

However, the proposed budget shows other expenditures, such as library materials and programs, library operations and building operations, are decreasing.

Operating revenue – which includes local library services aid, payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT), interest income, commissions, fines and sales, appropriation from fund balance and miscellaneous income – decreases from $307,003 to $251,900 in the proposed budget.

Building operations – which include electricity, gas and water utilities, building repair and maintenance, insurance, building service contracts and custodial costs – are $250,100 in the proposed budget. That’s down from $266,000.

Library operations are also down. Currently they’re at $336,100. In the proposed budget they’re set at $309,000. It includes everything from elections to bank and payroll processing fees, circulation control, equipment repair and rental contracts, conferences and travel, library supplies, and printing and public relations.

Another area in which expenditures show a decrease is library materials and programs. It goes from $500,000 to $425,000.

Bob Becker, library board president, also noted that contract services are down.

“Mr. Ward has renegotiated everything down. He does a lot more in-house: custodial and security, for instance. And the security force is better,” he said.

Ward felt the community would support the new budget. “I think the community will see that we are doing the most frugal budget for the library services we offer. We’re doing it at a cost that’s very conscience of people’s economic situation,” he said.

However, while not many from the community came down to the public meeting, those who did expressed strong sentiment.

Lindenhurst resident Kathy Donat summed it up: “I use the library a lot, and I think it’s an important part of town. We really need to pay attention to resources like this, or else they’ll be gone.”