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 ?
No, it is not a bad thing. But what is a bad thing is the absence of any conversations about consolidating library services. There is talk about consolidating almost every other municipal function, but not the library. Why?
Really, we’re talking about consolidating police ands fire suppression, central garage and 911, and libraries ? How many Police Chiefs are there in Ridgewood, Glenrock, Ho-Ho-Kus, Waldwick, Midland Park, Allendale, etc ? That is an area way smaller than Hackensack or Oakland, and yet we need 6 chiefs just for those towns ? Wow ! Can we get surrounding towns to share the cost of our paid Fire dept ? Can we outsource Central Garage to Paramus and 911 to the County ? “Home rule” is one of those union issues that they through up like mud to gum up this kind of talk.