Wantagh Library Budget - Vote No on 4/23

Here's why: 1. The library contends both in its newsletter and in the most recent edition of our local newspaper that at the average annual library tax per homeowner is approximately $129. Truth be known, the real tax is closer to $365. Class 1 taxpayers (homeowners) pay about 88% of the library tax. Now look at your tax bill and then do the math. If your house has a “market value” of $400,000 your assessed value is $1,000. At a library tax rate of $36.46 per hundred dollars of assessed value, your library tax is $365. To get to the library’s version of the tax, your house would need to have a market value of about $142,000. Recent estimates of the “average” market value of a home in Wantagh are $375-400,000. 2. Salaries, benefits, pension obligations, insurance and outside professional fees account for nearly 75% of the library’s annual budget. 3. In the 2012 library budget vote 263 voters out of about 20,000 eligible voters voted. I am advised it cost the library $4,873 to conduct the vote, i.e. a cost of approximately $18.53 PER VOTE cast. The budget passed by 53 votes. 4. In a candid response elicited from the library director, I was advised that the real reason the library budget vote is scheduled separately from the school budget vote (which gets a much greater although also dismal) percentage of voter turnout, is that if the votes were held together, the library budget would not pass. There are 16 full-time employees and five retired employees (receiving retiree benefits) eligible to vote on the library budget. Add to that number the five trustees. It is not unreasonable to think that each of these people have a spouse, dependent, significant other, relative, or close friend who is also eligible to vote and could be asked to vote “yes”. In other words the library holds its budget vote at a separate time in a deliberate attempt to minimize voter turnout but with a significant “built in” advantage in the likely number of total votes expected to be cast. Now go ahead and connect the dots, I dare you.