Towns ask library to return surplus funds

Assembly bill would reduce local funding of libraries

BY ERIN O. STATTEL Staff Writer

MATAWAN — It looks as if both Matawan Aberdeen will have to wait to hear how much money the public library will be able to return to the taxpayers.

Both Aberdeen and Matawan council members met with library representatives at a special meeting March 9 to discuss the possibility of returning unused funds to the municipalities to provide tax relief.

“There was a lot of honest discussion,” said Aberdeen Township Mayor David Sobel. “Over the years, a surplus has formed and the library told us that they had reserved some of those funds for capital improvement projects. We asked the library for documentation as to the projects that they have lined up and the costs associated and the timetables for those projects.”

The councils of both municipalities have asked the Matawan-Aberdeen Public Library to return unused funds to help offset likely tax increases to fund the 2009 municipal operating budgets. A joint meeting was held Feb. 26 at Aberdeen Township Hall, but little headway was made.

“We are still where we were last time,” said Susan Pike, director of the Matawan- Aberdeen Public Library. “We have to get our 2008 audit, which should be in soon. The board will have to review the audit and decide what amount can be given to the towns.”

Both municipalities asked the joint public library to return half of each municipality’s yearly contribution in order to lessen the blow to taxpayers during tough economic times.

According to officials from both towns, for the fiscal year 2009, Aberdeen would be responsible for approximately $733,000 and Matawan would be chipping in $361,000 toward the library’s operation.

Matawan May or Paul Buccellato said that all parties managed to come to an agreement.

“We decided that we would allow the library the time to obtain their audit,” Buccellato said. “The audit is to be transmitted to Ms. Pike by March 13 and the finance committee of the library’s board of trustees will receive and review the audit next week and another special meeting will have to be held.”

Prior to the March 9 meeting, the problem with waiting for the library’s audit offset the deadline for the municipalities to introduce their operating budgets.

“The budgets don’t have to be introduced until the end of March,” Buccellato said. “The state extended the deadline until March 30, so Matawan will hopefully introduce the budget sometime between March 23 and March 30.”

Having what some might call a surplus, the library had set unused funds aside for a capital campaign, Pike had explained at the Feb. 26 meeting.

In a March 11 interview, Pike said that her board of trustees still has some issues to discuss and needs to line projects up according to the request.

“[The board of trustees] just approved a strategic plan and they will need to look at the different projects and prioritize what can be held off and what is needed now,” Pike said. “I think it is premature to say the board is not going to give money back to the towns. I think the intent is to give the towns their money, but my board has not had that discussion yet.”

“We fully understand what the current financing formula provides,” Sobel said during the Feb. 26 meeting, “but we are also aware of the library’s surplus of approximately $800,000, which is over and above the $1.1 million needed for annual operations. It’s also clear that the library does not spend that entire amount of funding.”

In a March 11 interview, Sobel said that the municipalities would know the exact amount of the library’s surplus after the audit is made available.

“We believe there is a surplus between $800,000 and $900,000, but we will know better after the library receives their audit,” he explained. “However, both municipalities continue to fund the library at the current rate of one-third of a mill, but we are still looking for a refund to put off wage freezes, furloughs and firings. This is a unique situation.”

Currently, legislation is before the state Assembly to cut that mandatory rate of one-third of a mill of a dollar in half to onesixth of a mill of a dollar for municipalities funding free public libraries.

According to the Aberdeen Township Tax Assessor’s Office, a mill is equal to one thousandth of the town’s total assessed property value.

Take a third of that one thousand and that number is the current mandatory amount the municipality has to pay to the joint public library.

Aberdeen’s total assessed value for 2009 is $2,089,349,012. Matawan’s total assessed value for 2009 is $1,039,657,100.

“We will live with whatever is the law,” Sobel said of the library-funding cut. “We believe the library should be funded, and funded responsibly. I’m not saying ours isn’t, but a surplus has built up over the years.”

Sobel also said that he wasn’t sure how long it would take for that legislation to go into effect, should it come to fruition.

“I am not sure if we would be affected for this calendar year or next, but whatever it is, we will have to abide by,” he said.

Buccellato echoed Sobel’s sentiment.

“Well, we wouldn’t oppose it because it is a reduction,” he said.

According to Pike, the next board of trustees meeting will be held April 1, but the finance committee is expected to meet before that date in order to gather the refund data for the towns and their municipal budgets.