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January 27, 2010
Wayne library board delays decision on ways to close budget gap
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
BY ANDREA ALEXANDER
The Record
STAFF WRITER
WAYNE – Trustees for the township library are considering options to make up for a $93,286 budget shortfall this year that could include closing on Sundays or asking the staff to make concessions.
The library is facing a gap in the 2010 budget because the tax base in the township shrank while fixed costs, including insurance and pension contributions, increased.
Library director Jody Treadway recommended closing on Sundays and taking money out of other line items to close the shortfall. But during a recent meeting some trustees also suggested asking library employees to go on furlough to make up the difference. Library staff is under contract, and any concessions would have to be negotiated.
Board members delayed making a decision during a special meeting Tuesday night and will continue to consider how to close the budget gap during a Feb. 9 meeting.
“We’ve made no decision, the board is still in investigation mode,” said Library Board president Franco Mazzei.
Trustees directed Treadway to contact union representatives to consider alternatives for dealing with the shortfall. Treadway said she would also write the school district to ask for a break on the $30,000 rent the library pays for the Preakness Branch on the Hamburg Turnpike.
State rules mandate that municipal libraries receive a minimum funding level equal to a certain percentage of the township’s overall equalized valuation — the worth of taxable property in the entire township. Because the township’s tax base has decreased in value, the library budget dropped from $4,011,646 in 2009 to $3,939,483 this year.
Treadway said she had already made cuts in anticipation of the shrinking tax base. The library no longer pays to have a police officer stationed in the Valley Road building after school at a savings of $20,000. The library also stopped calling in substitutes to fill in when workers are on vacation or out sick.
E-mail: alexandera@northjersey.com
Posted by tumulty at January 27, 2010 10:02 AM
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