To the editor:
We are writing to alert voters in the F-M School District about a pending action by the Fayetteville Free Library (FFL) Board of Trustees to increase the library’s 2017 tax levy by 6 percent, which is unwarranted and unjustified.
The FFL Board has not been transparent in its budget process and actions to override the New York State Tax Cap, has violated its state charter by not including public officials on its board and has ignored the state Open Meetings Law by refusing to make board meeting minutes publicly available.
Libraries are subject to the state tax cap law, yet FFL’s trustees have repeatedly proposed budgets that substantially and unnecessarily exceed the tax cap. Rather than make the hard decisions to stay within the tax cap, as our school district, village and town governments have done, FFL’s board has chosen to increase our taxes each year.
With a more-than-substantial reserve fund, which exceeds its nearly $2 million annual budget, FFL has the means to easily live within the tax cap without any increase in the tax levy.
The proposed 6 percent increase in the tax levy equates to a per capita cost for the FFL charter area of $191 compared to the average per capita cost among the 21 libraries in Onondaga County of $60.
Voters should also be aware that FFL’s tax levy is imposed on all property owners within the F-M School District even though FFL’s service area is limited by its charter to about 10,000 residents in Fayetteville. Further, you have to live within this area to serve on the FFL board. As such, town of Manlius homeowners in the Fayetteville village pay for FFL but they can’t be on the FFL board if they are not in the service area.
The FFL board is scheduled to approve the proposed 2017 tax levy at its next board meeting at 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 13, at the FFL library.
Voters can attend this public meeting and/or contact FFL trustees to encourage them to live within the tax cap. Voting members of the FFL board are: President/Treasurer Jim Brule, Vice President Judy Jones, Betsy Bower, Keith Bybee and David Pasinski.
Here are some additional facts to consider:
Since 2009, FFL has gradually shifted its funding burden onto local property taxpayers and away from fundraising activities. Property taxes now pay for 94 percent of FFL’s budget, up from 81 percent in 2009. Support from fundraising is now less than 3 percent of the budget compared to 16 percent in 2009.
Every year since the state tax cap law took effect in 2011, FFL has substantially exceeded the cap with increases ranging from 5 to 8 percent. At the same time, FFL substantially increased its cash holdings and fund balance.
As budgets and expenditures have increased, governance of the library has significantly diminished to the point where the library is no longer in compliance with its state charter.
No public officials serve on the FFL board even though it is required by FFL’s state charter. FFL’s charter requires a minimum of seven trustees, five elected and two ex-officio municipal trustees (one from the Fayetteville Village Board, the other from the school district board). However, the municipal trustee seats have not been filled for many years and there have been prolonged periods of time when the minimum standard of five trustees set by the state Department of Education for chartered association libraries has not been met.
We all want the best for our community, which is why we are raising these concerns about how our library is governed and funded.
Editor’s note:
The FFL Board of Directors has responded at length to many of the concerns raised in this letter; that response is available online fflib.org/about/boardoftrustees.
Robert J. Duncanson
FFL Association Member and Taxpayer
FFL Trustee 1985-93
Patti Giancola Knutsen
FFL Association Member and Taxpayer
Mary L. Karpinski
FFL Association Member and Taxpayer
Manlius Library Trustee and Officer 2006-16
David M. Marnell, Sr.
FFL Association Member and Taxpayer
Former FFL Board President and Trustee
Anne Messenger
FFL Taxpayer
