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April 20, 2010

Money and books in East Hanover

dailyrecord.com
Opinion
April 20, 2010

State aid cuts and declining property values have municipal officials considering policies they probably never would have thought of 10 years ago.

Take, for instance, the East Hanover Library. Like some others around the state, the library is funded through a formula that guarantees the library a yearly amount equal to "one third of a mill" of assessed value. A mill equals 1/$1000 of an assessed value. This is a rather ancient formula, but it can raise a lot of money, especially in a town like East Hanover which is chock-full of ratables on Route 10. This year, for instance, the library is slated to receive $1,346,258, which is about $100,000 more than last year.

What becomes problematic in these tough economic times is that the library is receiving more money at a time when many municipal departments are sustaining cuts. East Hanover is slated to lose $448,000 in state aid this year. The contrast of one department getting more money when others get less is provoking understandable discussion in East Hanover.

One possible solution is to change the rules. The township council is researching whether a referendum could be put on the November ballot to change the library's funding stream. Rather than be guaranteed a specific amount of money each year tied to assessed value, the library would essentially become a municipal department. Under that setup, the council would determine annual funding in much the same way it decides how much money the police and the recreation department get each year.

Gayle Carlson, the library director, says the change would leave the library at the mercy of the council. That's true. But as elected officials, the governing body should have the right to decide on funding for town departments. Given the fact a library is an important part of any community, it's hard to see a governing body willfully hurting a library financially.

As we said, if the economy was roaring along and if state aid was increasing, this may not even be an issue.

But the economy is far from roaring along, making this change worth considering.

Posted by tumulty at April 20, 2010 6:33 PM

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