A Drastic Cut in Funding Proposed for Grinnell

Libraries need stable funding if they are to continue serving the public, but when a political entity such as a Town, County, or State encounters a need to tighten its belt, one of the first notches to go seems to be money for library services. This was brought home to me this morning when I read that Patricia Myers, Town Supervisor for the Town of Poughkeepsie, is proposing to slightly mitigate her proposal for higher Town taxes by cutting $50,000 from Town funding for the Grinnell Library. Although the Grinnell Library is in Wappinger, its service area includes part of the Town of Poughkeepsie, so traditionally a substantial portion of its budget of $439,000 comes from that Town. Given the recent cuts in funding to the Mid-Hudson system by both country and state, it would appear that Grinnell will be in real trouble if Ms. Myers' budget plan is adopted.

New York State some fifteen years ago recognized that libraries need stable funding and provided that free-association libraries, such as Grinnell and the Pleasant Valley Free Library, can obtain a secure funding base if voters in the town the library is in petition for secure town support and then vote to assure it. Voters in Pleasant Valley, for example, will have the opportunity this November 2 to vote for or against providing that kind of stable funding for our Library--the proposition will be on the back side of the ballot, while voting for candidates for office is on the front. Once such a vote favors continuing Library funding by the Town, the amount will remain the same until there is another petition and vote, typically three or more years later depending on the ravages of inflation.

This year the Pleasant Valley Free Library is asking each family in the Town to support the Library by an amount that, when spread across the Town, would amount to an increase of the cost of one Library book a year--or, if you are not a reader, think of it as about the same as two movie DVDs a year or an extra cup of coffee every month. Given recent losses county and state funding, which do not look to be restored in the near future, Pleasant Valley Library needs this increase to keep operating at the same level. And if Pleasant Valley has to cut back hours or services because the proposition fails to pass, using the Grinnell Library instead does not look promising.