Wantagh Voters to Decide Library Budget Tuesday

Wantagh voters will decide their local library’s proposed 2012/13 budget today.

Voting on the $2.3 million budget is scheduled from 1-9 p.m. in the library’s community room on 3285 Park Ave. The spending plan represents a $120, 419 or 6.19 percent increase from the library’s current $2.2 million budget. Library officials said the majority of the budget increase is due to $92,000 in state-mandated pension costs.

The budget proposal is estimated to increases taxes for the average Wantagh homeowner by about $9.45, according to library officials.  The proposed budget exceeds the state’s new 2 percent tax cap legislation but a simple majority is all that will be needed to approve the fiscal plan and not 60 percent in the case of school districts. This is due to a portion of the tax cap law that permits libraries to propose budgets above the tax cap with a 60 percent approval by the library’s Board of Trustees.

For further information on how libraries are impacted by the tax cap regulations, click on the New York Library Association website.

“The proposed budget calls for an increase to the average home in Wantagh of less than $1 per month,” said Wantagh Public Library Director Maggie Marino in a letter to residents. “Aside from the mandated pension cost increase, the library budget is only increasing by approximately $28,000.”

Last year's Wantagh Public Library budget was passed, 112 to 86.