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Urges Butterfield Library to Amend its Bylaws
To the Editor:
The Julia Butterfield Library (JBL) is currently campaigning to obtain additional annual funding from the Town of Philipstown. According to the library's latest newsletter, they currently receive $125,000 from the town, plus much smaller amounts from the villages of Nelsonville and Cold Spring. A proposition they are putting on the November 7th ballot - Proposition 414 - asks for an additional $151,000 from the town, for a total of $276,000.
On the face of it, this would appear to be something we should all support. That's what I thought when I first heard about it. As a lifelong library patron and as a former trustee of both the Desmond-Fish Library and the Mid-Hudson Library System, I am acutely aware of both the importance of libraries as well as the often uncertain status of their funding. But as I began to look more closely at the JBL's request, I developed some doubts that I want to share with your readers.
Under New York State law the JBL is what is called an Association Library, i.e., a private library, as distinguished from both a public and school library. But while the JBL is private, it can, under changes to Chapter 259 of the New York State Education Law, ask for public funding, as it is presently doing. The law is quite generous, and this is what voters need to be aware of: once approved, unless the library changes the amount it is requesting, it does not have to seek reapproval on an annual basis. Further, there is no provision in the law for annual public review of the library's operation.
Essentially, then, the JBL would become an institution almost completely publicly funded; it would be guaranteed this funding annually, with no taxpayer review; and its board would be under no obligation to submit to the voters any accounting of how the money is being used. While the law allows this, this is poor law and bad fiscal policy.
There is a way out of this impasse: the same New York State law allows an Association library to amend its bylaws to allow for public election of its trustees, something that is not currently the case with the JBL. I urge the JBL Board to do this. If and when the JBL is prepared to allow for public election of trustees, I will happily support its funding request. Until that time, I urge voters not to support Proposition 414
John P. Dunn
Cold Spring
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