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February 15, 2009

Libraries facing hefty budget cuts

Sunday, February 15, 2009
Last updated: Sunday February 15, 2009, 12:09 PM
BY JAMES YOO
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER

Library funding could face the chopping block as local officials seek flexibility in controlling costs.

A movement led by the New Jersey League of Municipalities aims to halve dedicated tax dollars for libraries. A state Assembly bill to that effect was introduced this week.

The League argues that the current funding formula is outmoded and outpaced by land values that rose during boom years.

Library directors and advocates counter that the funding formula, in place since 1937, is self-correcting and rises and falls with property values. They also argue that cuts would impact services and resources just when job seekers and students are using them more than ever.

"Strong libraries make strong communities," said Norma Blake, the state librarian. "Right now, we need strong communities. And the one public entity that is going to preserve the quality of life for residents is the public library."

The question of library funding arises as local officials deal with dwindling state aid and shrinking property tax bases, even as public-service costs rise. They can trim costs around the edges, but still face big-ticket items such as staff contracts.

Towns must allocate a base amount of tax revenues to local libraries, which are created by public vote. Libraries receive a third of a "mill" tax on every dollar of assessable property, equalized to updated market values.

A mill equates to a tenth of a cent. For example, the owner of a house with a market value of $100,000 would pay about $33 to support the local library.

In actual dollars, that funding fluctuates along with taxable property values. In boom times, it can rise, as was the case for most North Jersey local libraries from 2007 to 2008 — Palisades Park and Paterson rose almost 16 and 17.5 percent, to about $863,000 and $2.8 million, respectively. But it can also decrease or stay flat, as in Midland Park, which dropped about 2 percent to about $440,000, as well as Totowa, which slipped about half a percent to about $774,000. Oradell's barely changed, edging up three hundredths of a percent, to about $610,000.

The General Assembly bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Vincent Prieto, D-Secaucus, would halve municipal library funding from a third of a mill to a sixth.

The bill is not yet in final form, Prieto said. He said he will work with library directors and advocates "to make some amendments so it's something they live with."

William Dressel, executive director of the League of Municipalities, praised the bill and urged mayors to press lawmakers to support it.

"Because these [library funding] statutes have not been amended to change the proportional obligation of each municipality to fund its public library, many municipalities are collecting monies in excess of the needs of their public library systems," he wrote.

Inflation and real-estate booms, the League argues, have pushed the equalized value — essentially market value — of property well beyond equalized values that existed when the library tax law was enacted.

"Years ago, maybe that made a lot of sense," Dressel said. "I'm not sure that number is a legitimate number. We think that number should be reduced."

Dressel doesn't want to abolish libraries. He wants local officials to have more fiscal flexibility, especially in hard times — "Give them the decision-making authority to determine the best possible use of those dollars for the better good," he said.

Allendale Mayor Vincent Barra supports the change. Libraries "provide an incredible amount of services to residents," he said, "But having said that, they don't spend all the money allocated to them."

And if libraries do not have specific purposes for surplus funds, "it's telling me something's wrong with the formulation," Barra said.

Patricia Tumulty, executive director of the New Jersey Library Association, said library boards do save money — so they don't have to ask taxpayers for more to pay for carpet, computers or other such expenses.

She and other librarians also disagreed with the League's rationale on the funding formula. True, if a town's property values rise, so will library funding, Tumulty said. But the reverse also applies, she said.

"In essence, it's a self-correcting formula" that has worked for decades, she said.

Moreover, she added, cuts would affect the increasing droves of job and information hunters.

For example, Saturdays at Clifton's main and branch libraries have been busy all day for months, said library Director Christine Zembecki. Generally, patrons used to only begin coming in around 1 p.m.

Among other libraries, Riverdale lent 17 percent more books and DVDs from 2007 to 2008. Ridgewood saw a 10 percent increase, to 26,000, in program attendance. At Woodland Park, registered use of free computers rose by 58 percent.

"The place is jam packed," said Robert Lindsley, director of the Alfred H. Baumann Free Public Library in Woodland Park.

Given that intensifying use, library overseers say halving dedicated funding would lead to fewer weekend and evening hours, also cutting into student research and time given to help job seekers with computers and résumés. And "if you cut people, that's the one thing that we have to offer," said Riverdale Public Library Director Abigail Sanner, adding it's staff, or the human touch, that differentiates her library from, say, a large chain bookstore such as Borders.

Community ties also are a factor: Reducing Riverdale's hours or staff, by example, would affect a regional knitters' group. Nicole Threlfall, 25, of Hawthorne has come to the gatherings since her high school days and said, "There are a lot of these groups that keep crafts alive, and libraries are a good place to do that."

Robert White, executive director of the Bergen County Cooperative Library System, said tax cuts would not initially affect larger libraries, such as Ridgewood and Teaneck. But those systems still could be stressed, he said: If smaller neighbors must cut back, that would drive patrons to larger libraries — which in turn might have to limit out-of-towners.

Edward Simoni, president of the Bloomingdale Free Public Library board, said if his library suffered the proposed cut, "it's out of business. I don't see how it could survive."

Bloomingdale's board is among dozens in North Jersey formally opposed to changing the tax formula.

Blake, the state librarian, said urban libraries are hurting now, and suburban libraries would follow.

"We see libraries as the canary in the coal mine," she said. "Cutting libraries is the first sign of decay."

E-mail: yoo@northjersey.com

Posted by tumulty at February 15, 2009 10:00 PM

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