414 Controversies

It is budget time for the Towns in Dutchess County and soon to be voting time for the three libraries in our neighborhood that are going to the public for permission to increase the portion of the budget supplied by Town fundings. The timing tends to pit those in charge of the Town budget against those asking for higher library funding. In Pleasant Valley, Town Supervisor John McNair gave an interview in which he essentially blamed his budget problems on the Library and followed it up with a letter to the Poughkeepsie Journal in which he flung about percentages and said this is not the time to fund a library. His wildest charge is that the "library administration is seeking the funds in order to increase staff and administrative salaries and to ensure that the same rates are charged to nonresidents as to our town residents."  I don't even know what he means by "the same rates are charged to nonresidents as to our town residents" since nearly all services from the Library to residents and nonresidents alike are free--but he may be referring to a 25 cents per book charge for ordering a book from another library, which is only charged to nonresidents (in effect now and covering some of the cost to the Library of getting that book, but only about $1,000 for the whole year in any case).

But the idea that the all-volunteer Library Board of Trustees might be trying to add $95,000 to the admittedly low salaries of our 4.5 paid staff members is completely ridiculous. Pleasant Valley Free Library currently has the 5th largest circulation of libraries in the County, but the salaries of our total combined staff averages $71 per hour opened, while the next smallest average of those 8 libraries is $122 per hour (and the others are considerably higher yet).  Another way to look at this is that our staff handles 31,000 items per member per year, compared to 15,000 items for the next higher paid staff of the top 8.  Only very small libraries that handle a few thousand items per year have lower salary ratios because staff in a very small library can be swamped by the number of volunteers.  (Pleasant Valley Library has 4 times the number of volunteers as staff or more at any given time, but the volume of transactions means that trained staff must be on hand at all times to manage.)

So what portion of the proposed $95,000 increase would go for increase in staff salaries: 4.2%--and that would go only as modest increases to staff that are being paid just about the minimum wage now. The Town supervisor seems to think that the Library "administration" is behind a move to garner big salaries, but in fact the only people who will get raises if the Chapter 414 proposition passes are not only banned by law from working on getting this passed, but for the most part have no idea what the Board is doing.  It is true that the Director knows what the Board is doing, but she is not up for a raise.

In response to the article and letter from the Town Supervisor, the Library Board of Trustees drafted a reply for the Poughkeepsie Journal to publish.  It seems worth repeating here since not everyone in Town reads the papers.  We said:

We read with concern several quotes in your article on 10/21 and a letter to the editor on 10/22 concerning the PV Library budget proposed increase. We want to be sure your readers have all of the facts and accurate information.

Unlike the town and school district, the Library does not request a new budget every year. In fact, the last time the Library asked for an increase was 2006, and before that, in 1999. So in the last decade, the Library budget has increased only once, and the library has been operating with the same 2006 budget for the last four years. In addition, state and county funding cuts this year remove $30,000 from the Library’s budget each year, permanently.

On November 2, Pleasant Valley residents will vote on a referendum for a Library funding increase. Then the library will stay at the new budget level for at least four years. Clearly, many costs have gone up since 2006, and they will continue to increase.

The Library requests an additional $95,000 annually, increasing the Library portion of the current town budget from 5.4% to 7.3%, a 1.8% increase. This translates to an average cost of $26 per household per year.

We invite you and any Journal readers to review the 2006-2010 Library budget and the proposed 2011-2014 budget, available to the public at the Pleasant Valley Library.

Many people rely on our Library – we don’t want to have to cut services to fit within a 2006 budget until 2014.