Since my recent post on how the Matawan Aberdeen Public Library is being asked to use its savings to help the township and borough to mitigate unanticipated budgetary shortfalls this year, the Independent has published a follow up to its earlier article. It seems that Aberdeen Mayor David Sobel and Matawan Mayor Paul Buccellato still intend to break into the library's capital improvement piggy bank. They're just giving the library more time to make the decision now, in comparison to the bum's rush they were giving the library back in February.
Keep in mind that the local municipalities fund libraries based on a state-mandated formula. Aberdeen and Matawan are required to contribute a portion of receipts to their local library. Since our library has been thrifty and saved its pennies towards a major development project, it is wrong to take that savings away and label it some kind of undesignated surplus. Mayor Sobel's logic that the library has available funds because its entire annual receipts are higher than its operating expenses shows a complete lack of understanding of how non-profits plan for the long-term and use fund accounting practices to designate monies for capital improvements and building projects. It is extremely unlikely that either municipality can or will restore these funds once they are tapped, so planned projects will be seriously delayed or cancelled entirely.
Show your support to the library in this difficult period.
You're absolutely right. The library should be encouraged to save for capital projects, not robbed by overspending municipalities who fail to keep their own houses in order.
ReplyDeleteThe more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. I'm glad you agree.
ReplyDeleteThis just makes me crazy. The borough and the township have always fought over who should put more money into the library -each thinking the other should. The library has never been funded the way it should be, and now, after the awesome staff has scrimped and saved to save towards a project, the mayors want to take that money back as a "surplus".
ReplyDeleteIt's just wrong. I hope letters will be written.
The library provides programs for adults and children alike at little or no cost. It is, sadly, about the only thing offered in our community for those with limited funds, or whose child/ren are not interested in sports. The community should not be punished by loosing programs or improvements to the library when the township and the borough could scrimp a little somewhere else.