Minimal Increase In Proposed New City Library Budget

The New City Library budget proposed for fiscal year 2015 remains almost flat from the fiscal year 2014 spending plan. It calls for no tax increase and goes up by $1,297.

The amount of money collected from school taxes to fund the budget would stay the same at $4,989,025.  

A public hearing on the budget for the New City and West Nyack libraries takes place on Tuesday at the New City Library from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

The vote on the proposed budget will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 11 along with elections for three New City Library trustee seats. Eight candidates are running for the seats currently held by Tom Ninan, Jeffrey Greenberg and Matthew Mulrooney, whose terms are ending. The current board has frequently sparred over issues facing the library and had votes of five to four. 

The proposed library budget has areas of significant increase and decrease. It calls for a four percent jump in salaries from $2,683,364 to $2,788,200 and reductions in disability, dental insurance, and health insurance costs and educational reimbursements. The fee for automated services through the Ramapo Catskill Library System shows a potential increase from $108,000 to $120,000 and postage would go from $7,200 to $12,480. 

All line items under the Building and Equipment categories show a drop of between six percent and 67 percent. Travel allocations would rise 24 percent to $5,000 and professional development would be cut in half to $6,000. A PDF of the proposed budget is attached to this article.

The candidates for the New City Library trustee positions come from a range of backgrounds including a 19-year-old college student, former library trustee, business and financial professionals and retired special education teacher. Click on any name to read the candidate’s statements submitted by:

Agin Anthony; Suresh Arya; Carole Beth Goldberg; Martus Granirer; Margaret M. Hook; Ralph Sabatini; Jeffrey Sasson and David Zuckerberg.

The vote for trustees and the budget will be held Wednesday, Dec. 11 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the New City Library for Districts 1,2 and 3 while District 4 will vote at the West Nyack Free Library also from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Absentee ballots for the trustee election are available weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Tuesday, Dec. 10 in the library's administrative office or download it by clicking here. Absentee ballots must be returned by 5 p.m. to the polls on December 11.