Budget public hearing tonight

ONEIDA, N.Y. >> There will be a public hearing on the Oneida Public Library budget tonight at 7 p.m. in the library’s meeting room.

A board of trustees meeting will take place before the public hearing at 5 p.m. in the library’s history room.

The proposed $403,900 budget represents a 5.7 percent increase over the budgets for the last three fiscal years. The budgets for all three of those years was $382,110.

For a property assessed at $100,000, the library tax would increase by $3.01.

The proposed budget has a tax levy of $355,900, an increase of 6.5 percent over the preceding three budgets. The library board anticipates public funding of $15,000; private funding of $21,000; and library revenue of $12,000 generated by fines and ancillary fees.

New York state’s recent minimum wage increase plays a big role in the budget increase, OPL Board President George Richard Kinsella Jr. said.

“The OPL will not be able to continue to offer the same convenient hours of operation with high-speed internet access, wide choice of circulation materials and excellent programming and services without increasing the operating budget,” Kinsella said. “Our proposed budget increase of about $21,000 will allow us to pay the mandatory minimum wage increases, update the inventory, and replace failing and outdated equipment.”

Last year, the proposed $388,458 budget was voted down by a total of 471 to 378.

The budget vote will be held Tuesday, March 7, from noon to 9 p.m. in the library’s meeting room. The Oneida Public Library’s Special Legislature Library District shares a footprint with the Oneida City School District, and comprises: the City of Oneida, the Village of Wampsville and portions of the towns of Lenox and Lincoln in Madi-

son County; and, in Oneida County, the villages of Oneida Castle and Durhamville and portions of Sylvan Beach and of the towns of Vernon, Verona and Vienna.