Democrat Leadership in State Assembly Attacks Your Local Library Funding

Vincent Prieto, Deputy Majority Whip, is a primary sponsor of Assembly Bill A3753 that reduces the tax levy for free public libraries to one-sixth of a mill per dollar of assessable property. It is a direct attack on funding of our local libraries threatening their very existence. In these tough economic times when libraries across of New Jersey have become places of last resort to many New Jersey residents, it is an unconscionable attack on local libraries by the Democrat leadership in the State Assembly.

Together, Wojciech Siemaszkiewicz of Bergenfield and Barry Bellin of Teaneck, as Republican candidates for the State Assembly in November 2009 declare unconditional support for our local libraries in Legislative District 37 and across New Jersey. We urge incumbent Democrat legislators in District 37 to publicly oppose their leadership arrogant legislative attempt to deprive our local libraries of necessary funds to operate in the most beneficial way to our communities.

Background

Since 1937, New Jersey libraries are founded by the funding formula that allocates a base amount of tax revenues to local libraries in an amount of 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.

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 was supported by the New Jersey League of Municipalities. According to William Dressel, executive director of the League of Municipalities "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." The New Jersey League of Municipalities wants local officials to have more fiscal control over library funding.

The New Jersey Library Association strongly opposed this legislation. More than 3300 letters in opposition to the bill were sent to the Assembly. At least 126 libraries in New Jersey have signed official resolutions decrying the NJLM’s plan. Fifty-three of the 126 belong to the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS), an inter-library loan consortium. Many town councils followed with their resolutions of support for the present library funding.

Analysis

Many municipalities would like to control the amount of funds spent on libraries and decide their annual budgets. Since many municipalities are controlled by a single political party, this would in fact politicize normally apolitical institutions such as the local library. This would also make libraries dependent on political appointments controlled by the local municipalities.

Conclusion

Our conclusion is that local libraries should stay apolitical and provide community services to all as needed. Local libraries should have a steady funding that would continue make them semi-independent from local governments controlled by political parties. The library funding should not be taken away from libraries by politically motivated governments on other purposes.

  It is time for a change in New Jersey politics

Wojciech Siemaszkiewicz 

Bergenfield

Barry Bellin

Teaneck

As published at: http://www.takebackbergen.com/