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Today's Poll: Should the county provide financial aid to local libraries?

By Howard B. Owens
Mark Potwora

City of Batavia property owners allready pay for the Richmond Library..Why have to pay again thru county taxes.But as Mark states do it thru county taxes..Why is it tied to the school taxes...

Aug 3, 2011, 11:58am Permalink
Thomas Mooney

Phil , They have their own budget but are funded partialy through the Batavia City Schools . The employees get state benefits because they are tied to the Batavia City Schools . The land and building are school property . The maintenance work is done by batavia City Schools . Having the library have its own budget is so they can spend money without having it be approved by the school board and the library board .The Library should be a city entity not a school entity . The schools have their own library in each building so why does the school continue with this extra exspense .

Aug 3, 2011, 12:58pm Permalink
Phil Ricci

Fair enough Thomas, but can I ask a question...Does it even matter where it's attached?

What's the difference if the school maintenance it or DPW? Are the costs different? What about the benefits to staff as you mentioned? The city benefits are pretty damn good as well, so it's not like we're saving money there.

I guess what I'm just confused over is the library has its own budget and a vote for it. If residents feel it's too much why not vote it down? If it goes under the city you can't even do that as we don't vote on that.

At the end of the day, you would see your city taxes go up and your school go down...the same amount.

Aug 3, 2011, 1:27pm Permalink
Mark Janofsky

Phil, your link shows everyone will be paying 2% more. For those who were recently re-assessed, the rate will be greater.

The economy realized under a countywide system would reduce management cost and improve services in the branches through shared services.

The end result would be a decrease in the combined budgets of all the libraries in the county.

In this argument the word "library" can easily be replaced with "school district".

Aug 3, 2011, 1:44pm Permalink
John Roach

Thomas,
The school district takes in part of the Town of Batavia, spreading the tax burden over a larger area than if the Library was just a city function.

Aug 3, 2011, 1:48pm Permalink
Phil Ricci

Oh Mark I'm not inferring it's not a good idea. I was just pointing out that the budget process is a single entity that residents can vote on currently.

Aug 3, 2011, 5:52pm Permalink

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