Tuxedo voters say ‘yes' to added library funding

TUXEDO-Voters in the town of Tuxedo approved a proposition which will add $31,469 to the library budget. About 40 percent of Tuxedo's 2,389 registered voters cast ballots. According to Tuxedo Town Clerk Elaine Laurent, the library proposition was approved by a vote of 634 to 415 no. Carmela Chase, the Tuxedo Park Library director, said the library needs more funds to maintain its current level of service. She said that overhead costs and increases in medical insurance, building insurance, and liability has given the library the need for more funds. In 1995, Gov. George Pataki signed into law legislation that libraries, if they believed were they getting under-funded, could directly ask voters on their own ballot line for assistance. The library's board of trustees took advantage of that legislation. After several years of numerous successful and non-successful pleas to the town board for more funds, they decided it was time to go directly to voters. "Last year, when a proposition was not handed to voters, services and programs had to be cut because of lack of funds," Chase said. "We did not want to have to cut more services this year. We wanted to at least maintain what we currently provide to the community." The vote means that the library budget will be increased from $336,996 to $368,465. It will roughly be about a $10 increase per every Tuxedo resident, from $102 to $112 per property owner.