Reader says any growth in the Library budget is insignificant compared to the growth in wages and benefits
Let’s look at the facts: the overall Village budget has grown by +9% from $42.15mn in 2009 to $46.02mn as of the adopted 2012 budget; of that, the Library budget had DECLINED -2% from $2.28mn to $2.23mn in 2009; meanwhile insurance, including healthcare, GREW +48% from $4.02mn to $5.95mn, the bill for public safety ROSE +7% from $11.39mn to $12.2mn, and the cost to taxpayers to fund pensions & social security INCREASED +26% from $3.6mn to $4.54mn.
For those keeping score, healthcare, wages and pensions accounted for almost 100% of the growth in our budget since 2009, yet we cut funding for the Library since then. So while the pensionistas will have you believe that funding the Library at 2009 levels (only $50,000 more a year than in 2012) is a horrible idea, they won’t tell you that any growth in the Library budget is insignificant compared to the growth in wages and benefits for their boys. And in a metric that even they should be able to understand, it costs the average tax payer $1.01 per household/commercial business, per day, to have a Village Library open to all. That’s a bad thing ?
