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Library Board proposes 3 percent budget hike

REPORTER FILE PHOTO Voters will have the final word on the Shelter Island Public Library 2015 budget on Saturday, October 25.
REPORTER FILE PHOTO
Voters will have the final word on the Shelter Island Public Library 2015 budget on Saturday, October 25.

If voters approve it in October, the 2015 budget to support the Shelter Island Public Library will rise from $630,971 to $649,964, an approximate 3 percent increase in spending.In tax dollars, $562,053 will be needed, rather than the $540,436 budgeted to support the current year’s operations.

The balance of funding comes from contributions and fund raising, grants, the library’s annual appeal, interest income and fines and fees.

The major increase is a $10,000 allocation to a capital fund to provide for unanticipated long-term repairs or replacements, according to library director Denise DiPaolo.

Employee costs would go from $431,467 to $447,926, with 6 percent of that coming from an increase in health care benefits. Qualified employees would see raises of between 2 and 3 percent, according to Ms. DiPaolo.

Because property and liability insurance costs were less than had been anticipated this year, the new budget proposal calls for an allocation of $11,200, rather than $15,304 that was allocated last year.

The 2015 number is based on actual costs for property and liability insurance for 2014, Ms. DiPaolo said. Last year’s estimate had been a projected expense provided from the library’s insurance adviser.

While the budget line for the annual appeal is down from $33,000 this year to an anticipated $19,000 in 2015, that doesn’t reflect a decline in revenues, Ms. DiPaolo said. Rather it’s because contributions from the Leadership Circle, memorials and bequests will flow directly to the capital account, so for 2015, they’re not reflected in the profit and loss statement.

A public information session on the proposed budget is scheduled at the library on Friday, October 17, at 5 p.m.

The budget vote takes place Saturday, October 25 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the library’s community room.

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