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February 16, 2009

Editorial: Loss of funds would have ripple effect

Editorial
South Bergenite, Feb. 18, 2009

Although library usage is as an all time high, there is talk of legislation that could drastically reduce municipal funding to libraries.

The New Jersey League of Municipalities, a very strong lobbying force in New Jersey, passed a resolution late last year calling for the reduction in minimum funding for libraries from one-third to one-sixth of a million. Current law mandates towns fund libraries at minimum one-third per million or about one dollar for every $3,000 of the total assessed property value in a given town. This law would equate to a 50 percent reduction in what municipalities would have to fund their public libraries. The League feels that in tough times, taxpayers’ money could be spent for other budget line items or the reduction could help keep taxes low.

Although many towns such as Rutherford already fund above what is mandated and may continue to do so, some towns say they would decrease library budgets. By doing so the Bergen County Community Library System (BCCLS) would drastically suffer. Formed in 1979 to foster resource sharing among Bergen County public libraries, the system gives a patron access to millions of items. A patron's hometown library card is honored at all 62 of the county's libraries and 13 others from Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties. Or patrons can request loans of DVDs, CDs or books by going to www.bccls.org. The thousands of patrons who depend on BCCLS for access to thousands of more periodicals than are currently housed within their own library would also suffer. As funding drops so would the number of periodicals.

The average per capita support for public libraries across the BCCLS system is $63.31 for 2007 (latest data currently available) or $1.22 a week. As a percentage of your total local property tax bill, your library receives less than 1.95 percent.

To date Lyndhurst and North Arlington library boards have passed resolutions opposing the League’s move to reduce the funding. Of course, the League has always been a strong voice for municipalities, but this time, towns should not follow the League’s message.

If you want to know more, go to the Web page of the New Jersey Library Association at www.njla.org.

Posted by tumulty at February 16, 2009 10:25 AM

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