2012/13 Library Budget

[lilly]

Can someone please confirm for me if the revenue side of the Library budget works similar to school district budgets (e.g., aid, tax levy, reserves)? Also, does the 2% tax cap with exclusions apply?

Operating Budget
2011/12 $2,232,697
2012/13 $2,353,116
Operating budget increase of $120,419 or 5.39%

Operating Budget less fines & fees
2011/12 $2,170,697
2012/13 $2,305,116
Operating budget increase of $134,419 or 6.19%

Budget increases may be broken down as:
NY State Mandate $92,000 or 3.99% (NYS Retirements)
Other Budget changes $28,419 or 2.20%

There is no info on revenue e.g., aid, total tax levy or reserve transfers, however there is:
Average cost to homeowners per year $263.76
Change in average cost to homeowner (per year) $9.45

Based on the average costs to homeowners above, the $9.45 is a 3.7% increase.

[Chris_Wendt]

I am not sure about the similarities between the school budget & tax levy and the library budget and tax levy rules.

Upon checking into this, I learned that the Library Board is scheduled to meet this Monday at 7:00 PM in the Community Room of the library.

The average increase per homeowner is generally a guesstimate based on blended tax property classes, and with no 'base' specified for comparison or authentication. The lack of a reliable base number is partly due to the fact that the individual property and total assessed valuations change from year to year, as does the tax levy, and therefore the tax rate for homeowners.

There is yet another variable which changes annually, the base proportions index, which affects (indexes) the tax rate for Class I properties, meaning, single family dwellings. The base proportions index in calculated by NY State, and usually not available at this time of year.

Chris Wendt

[lilly]

If the Library is using base proportions, they usually don't apply to Wantagh (significantly less commercial prop than the county average, more residential). I thought base proportions were a county figure? (Note these two sentences are demonstrating what I don't know...., lol)