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[quote="Guest"][quote="Guest"]I am disappointed that at 3:30 pm the library is overcrowded with kids, because they don't have enough room to sit, rad, do homework. I am disappointed that the few times I visited the library during a presentation/talk, there was insufficient room available. IMHO it is too small, and it is not a recent discovery. This has been brought up for many, many years. In terms on money....the library has more than a 3/4 million $$$ available, and has a difficult time spending it on library related stuff. As for taxes. The library get, correct me if I am wrong, 0.3% of the taxes anyway, that's mandated by the State. What did the board ask the township to do again? Ask if the PNC bank building could be donated (for a big tax break) or if PNC would reduce the price substantially. While I understand the fear of more taxes, maybe we should wait until numbers are crunched? What benefit do I get from the 10 million $$$ Liberty Way project? I have no issues with the traffic over there....[/quote] At 3:30 the library will always have kids as parents use this for babysitting. Having them cross Main St. as opposed to stay at the school is an issue. First, the town is legally allowed to get that money back and this year the library returned 18K. Second, the library failed to show any operational costs before asking about PNC that is a concern. Third, the liberty way bridge, the ballfield were all done by a full Dem TC, so the easy answer is vote for change. Four, the tax on PNC is 20k, the school rent the library is now paying is 50K. So any number that is shown has to show how a 70K short fall in town and school budgets will be made up prior to even one more step.[/quote]
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Guest
Posted: Sun, Jul 26 2009, 10:28 am EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Just a clarification to the poster above. The library can actually use their funds to buy a building and they can even have discussions on cost with a property owner. However, they cannot own the building.
What would have to happen is that the Town would have to agree to is to sign the contract and accept ownership. However, the library can do the negotiation and pay for the building.
My guess is that they know they don't have the funds and as such the only means to an acquisition is for the Town to buy the building by issuing more bonds and collecting more debt. Since the TC opened the door of exploratory talks it is a very simple process for them to now go forth with the purchase. This is why it is so important to change the make up of the TC and elect people who like Win will work together to micromanage the finances.
We are paying 40,000 for a barn taking it from surplus which will never be used or seen since the barn park has no parking and most people don't even know it exists. But, we can't find 5,000 for the siren for the fire department?
Guest
Posted: Sun, Jul 26 2009, 9:52 am EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
I agree that anything else is unacceptable, but unfortunately, that type of promise cannot be made and kept! As for the library buying the building, the library is not allowed by law to own a building - the town must buy it.
Guest
Posted: Sun, Jul 26 2009, 12:25 am EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Guest wrote:
If the library has the money, why don't they buy the building?
Can they promise to not only buy it, but renovate it to code for a public building and then maintain it in perpetuity without ever needing a dime beyond the minimum statutory State funding for a library and to also make up for the loss of the tax from the property and the rent to the school?
Anything less and it is a totally unnecessary burden on taxpayers.
Guest
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 10:53 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
If the library has the money, why don't they buy the building?
Guest
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 9:34 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
They have it because of the revaluation that raised the tax base. If not for that the money would not be there, so it is a bit artifical.
Also, there are 2 kindergarten classes next year not 3 and enrollment has decreased every year. So the school is not in desparate need of space as one may have you believe.
Guest
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 8:59 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Quote:
While this accommodation satisfied the immediate needs expressed by the BOE, the reconfiguration is at best a temporary solution. In the near future, the school wishes to expand their own use of the space in question. Therefore, the library needs to make definite plans to relocate as soon as possible.
This quote is also from the letter in the Press. I am interested why she believes the school wishes to expand their own use of the space. The BOE has said they will not throw the library out of the school. It sounds like the BOE is being the scapegoat here, when its the library board that is being unreasonable in demanding a new library that we cannot afford.
Before any other costs are considered, having the PNC building will cost the township $20K (or is it $27K) per year in revenues, so that's a tax increase for everyone else already.
Quote:
In terms on money....the library has more than a 3/4 million $$$ available, and has a difficult time spending it on library related stuff.
Where did this number come from? I find it hard to believe the library has that amount of money stashed away when we have over $20 million in township debt and $8 million in school debt, plus the township is looking at buying more open space land.
Guest
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 4:34 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Exactly the point...
Guest
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 4:24 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Guest wrote:
Perhaps the TC and the Library Board are being
too
transparent as it seems that they telling us about each step as they go through the process. Perhaps it would have been better if they kept this all a secret until they had all the information in place....
All that was decided was to ask the current price of the PNC.
This statement is laughable.
Guest
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 1:28 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Guest wrote:
Perhaps the TC and the Library Board are being
too
transparent as it seems that they telling us about each step as they go through the process. Perhaps it would have been better if they kept this all a secret until they had all the information in place....
All that was decided was to ask the current price of the PNC.
Its just this sort of backward logic that has Cranbury in deep debt. Even for free the PNC still costs our cranbury taxpayer more since in the Master Plan we have already purchased property and designated the space near the current school for a future free standing library. Its in there for all the pro-PNC supporters to read for yourselves so you have your spot already, why are still looking at the PNC? If the TC does purchase the PNC, they would have used my Tax dollars twice to purchase two properties for a single free standing library, that's just not right.
Why is the TC pursuing more unneeded real estate with the PNC? Why are we deviating from the master plan, isnt that the reason for the master plan so our township and TC can use it for long term planning and funding purposes. So instead, the TC decides to through the book out the window and make an impulse buy ignoring the prior vote to stop persuing the PNC. This is just bad politics and shame on the TC3 that are STILL promoting this. There are obviously many other agendas in the village that would use the extra Library parking for personal reasons, and it is up to our elected officials to discover the ulterior motivation and should have ended discussions in the last meeting. Very disappointing.
Guest
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 1:16 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Perplexed wrote:
Guest wrote:
Here is some simple budgeting. The PNC tax Revenue is 20K, the rent is 50K and the return from the library was 18K (to keep a surplus to have their own building).
For the purposes lets assume the 18K return never existed. So we have a loss of 70K in tax revenue. The rate goes up 1 penny for every 128K of expense. So if the cost of running the library is only 58K a year beyond their budget, our rate increases by 1 penny. So where my municipal tax is now .375 it becomes .385. An extra 96 dollars a year. That is only at 58,000 of increased expense. If we're looking at 186,000 of expense increase which is very likely my tax is now an additional 192 a year. Then I have sewer costs, liberty way, dam, ballfield. It's more and more costs.
It is not an increase of 96 dollars per year. It will be much more than that. You have neglected to include the purchase cost of PNC bank and renovation costs which will be a an additional multi-million dollar price tag to the taxpayer.
I don't understand why we must purchase the PNC when Cranbury already owns land that can be used for a freestanding library in the future. At face value it would be much less expensive to build from scratch than a complete renovation.
Yes, my point is that only on a very simple budget I am guaranteed of a 96.00 a year increase. In likelihood I am at 200 plus if this goes through. We're talking a million plus in renovation, legal, engineering studies, etc...So people who are saying we're already paying a tax are correct, but this will be on top of that cost.
Perplexed
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 12:25 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Guest wrote:
Perhaps the TC and the Library Board are being
too
transparent as it seems that they telling us about each step as they go through the process. Perhaps it would have been better if they kept this all a secret until they had all the information in place....
All that was decided was to ask the current price of the PNC.
So, you are proposing that the TC should negotiate a price on the PNC bank in secret and not tell the taxpayer who is paying the bill? This after it was voted upon by the TC not to pursue the PNC any further at a focused PNC neighborhood meeting last year!
I feel that the library already knows the answer to the PNC donating the property (a big fat NO) and that it just was a ruse to get the TC to negotiate a price to purchase the property. IMO the TC has wasted my time that I could have spent with my family by not sticking to their decision at the special meeting concerning the PNC bank property. They have broken the trust of the taxpayer. If effect, Their votes at any meeting means absolutely nothing. They will twist the outcome and forge ahead with their pet projects whether the taxpayer and their own neighbors want it or not.
Historicall Fiscal
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 12:21 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Guest wrote:
... For example, since we control the library and the school and the library uses school property let’s use that as an opportunity. Why not substantially increase the rent the library has to pay the school? This additional rent seems like a better use of the surplus our tax dollars paid for and would provide income to the school that we could order the Board to use, not for additional expenses but to reduce the rate they tax us to maintain their budget. Then we could either reduce taxes or start paying down debt more quickly. Then, down the road when we have substantially reduced our debt, we can consider if we collectively want something like a stand-alone library.
Wasnt this the first tax year that the Public Library is paying rent to the school? How many years has the library board sat silent and kept collecting its 0.3%/mil and banking it, while freeloading in the school building for years?
The Cranbury Public Library was founded in 1906, so I would estimate about 102yrs of back rent is due the school and cranbury taxpayers $5,100,000=102yrs*$50K rent that was never collected.
The comptroller should adjust this over time so the back rent would be slightly lower to adjust for the Present Value of the rent.
So I would argue that the library is actually in the hole since it owes the school back rent it never payed for over 102yrs and kept hording our manditory taxes fees. Why arent you as a taxpayer outraged that the Library was allowed to horde these fees for many years. It wasnt until taxpayer outcry from the last PNC meeting that the library started paying rent to the school in 2009, its first year of rent. That's not enough in my book to makeup the shortfall, I would like to resolve this back rent issue before we decide on purchasing the PNC building.
Perplexed
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 12:07 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Guest wrote:
Here is some simple budgeting. The PNC tax Revenue is 20K, the rent is 50K and the return from the library was 18K (to keep a surplus to have their own building).
For the purposes lets assume the 18K return never existed. So we have a loss of 70K in tax revenue. The rate goes up 1 penny for every 128K of expense. So if the cost of running the library is only 58K a year beyond their budget, our rate increases by 1 penny. So where my municipal tax is now .375 it becomes .385. An extra 96 dollars a year. That is only at 58,000 of increased expense. If we're looking at 186,000 of expense increase which is very likely my tax is now an additional 192 a year. Then I have sewer costs, liberty way, dam, ballfield. It's more and more costs.
It is not an increase of 96 dollars per year. It will be much more than that. You have neglected to include the purchase cost of PNC bank and renovation costs which will be a an additional multi-million dollar price tag to the taxpayer.
I don't understand why we must purchase the PNC when Cranbury already owns land that can be used for a freestanding library in the future. At face value it would be much less expensive to build from scratch than a complete renovation.
Guest
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 12:02 pm EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Perhaps the TC and the Library Board are being
too
transparent as it seems that they telling us about each step as they go through the process. Perhaps it would have been better if they kept this all a secret until they had all the information in place....
All that was decided was to ask the current price of the PNC.
Guest
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 11:37 am EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Guest wrote:
Here is some simple budgeting. The PNC tax Revenue is 20K, the rent is 50K and the return from the library was 18K (to keep a surplus to have their own building).
For the purposes lets assume the 18K return never existed. So we have a loss of 70K in tax revenue. The rate goes up 1 penny for every 128K of expense. So if the cost of running the library is only 58K a year beyond their budget, our rate increases by 1 penny. So where my municipal tax is now .375 it becomes .385. An extra 96 dollars a year. That is only at 58,000 of increased expense. If we're looking at 186,000 of expense increase which is very likely my tax is now an additional 192 a year. Then I have sewer costs, liberty way, dam, ballfield. It's more and more costs.
If the school only charges $50K a year in rent right now, that's part of the problem. No wonder they have a surplus. We should be charging many times that, then using the additional revenue to reduce the school tax.
Guest
Posted: Sat, Jul 25 2009, 11:34 am EDT
Post subject: Re: LETTERS: Cranbury Library needs its own space
Guest wrote:
How can one be transparent without first gathering information?
Very simply:
1) Publish for the public the criteria of exactly what information is being gathered.
2) Promise to publish the full results to the public and to allow adequate time for review and have at least one public meeting soliciting public input prior to any action on it. And commit to not have any vote at that public meeting since that usually means they have mae a decision before heairng the input.
3) Better yet, commit to a public referendum on the decision following the release of the information before commiting to any binding action.
That's transparency. Its not hard, its not complicated. And the three people on the TC that have pursued this have consistently refused to commit to ANY of this. Why are they afraid to even commit to a public meeting prior to action? What are they afraid of?