12/7/07 - Consolidation talks focus on city library

County, city officials have second meeting to search for opportunities to merge services

(As published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

City and county officials said Thursday afternoon they hope to hear from city library officials about the library’s funding structure as they search for ways to help the city out of budget troubles.

Meanwhile, city and county officials identified the next steps — such as bringing union representatives and department heads into the discussion — that could lead to the consolidation of services.

Cortland Free Library Director Kay Zaharis said Thursday night that neither she nor any members of the library’s board of directors had a chance to speak with any government officials since the city and the county first started talking about ways to relieve the city’s financial burden at a meeting Tuesday.

The library’s budget is slightly more than $200,000.

County officials stressed they would be interested in picking up the tab of other municipalities that fund local libraries but were unsure how much that would cost.

County Administrator Scott Schrader said Thursday night that any money appropriated from the 2008 county budget for the city would have to be taken out of the county’s $16 million fund balance.

Funding the library in future years would mean incorporating those monies into the regular budget. Schrader said the city library’s funding would amount to a 1 percent tax increase countywide.

The library’s board of directors has complete control over any policy decisions, Zaharis said. She speculated there could be some “charter issues” in any shift of funding and stressed that the library is an autonomous organization.

County Administrator Scott Schrader said he was interested in seeing the library’s financial statements.

The city is facing either a 7.8 or 9.8 percent tax increase.

The smaller possibility was proposed at a Tuesday night Common Council meeting by city Director of Administration and Finance Andy Damiano and would involve appropriating $335,000 from the city self-insurance fund, rather than the usual $200,000.

The city’s final opportunity to approve the $16.8 million 2008 budget is Dec. 18. The county Legislature’s last meeting of the year is on Dec. 20.

If the county picked up the city contribution to the Cortland Free Library, the city would be looking at another 3 percent being knocked off the tax rate.