Library Garden

Support Emergency Legislation to Remove Municipal Libraries from the Levy Cap . . .

Go! Do it! NOW!

Support emergency legislation to remove municipal libraries from the levy cap . . . THERE IS A VOTE TOMORROW!

I just wanted to share the link to look up your legislator – it is EASY! You can look on the right side by alphabetical list, municipality, district, etc…

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp

You get your district and you click on that to see the people and contact info.

I JUST CALLED them – I have always e-mailed in these cases but today I CALLED because I had just been in one of the webinars on WebJunction for the Spanish Language Outreach Program with some people who talked about advocating.
PHONE CALLS ARE MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE than e-mails!

It only took me about 5 minutes!
The people are nice!
They want these calls.

I identified myself as a librarian living and/or working in the district and asked for them to support the emergency legislation to remove municipal libraries from the levy cap. I said there is a vote tomorrow.

They already knew what I was talking about!
They took my name and seemed very interested to hear from me.

You either leave a message or talk to an assistant who takes the information.

REALLY – it took me less than five minute total for me to call three people!

PLEASE CALL!

Original message from Pat Tumulty:

CRITICAL UPDATE, MUNICIPAL CAP LEVY EXEMPTION.

We need your assistance right now to contact your NJ State Senators. Not tomorrow. Right now. Please ask your state senator to support emergency legislation which would allow an adjustment to levy cap calculations for local public library funding.When the new municipal cap levy legislation was passed this year, municipal libraries were included as part of the calculation for the levy cap.

This, unfortunately, created an inequity for the 245 communities which support municipal libraries. Communities which support county libraries have library expenditures excluded from the municipal levy because county libraries are funded by a dedicated tax and, therefore, outside the levy cap.

New Jersey League of Municipalities, the New Jersey Library Association and the NJ State Library have been working for a month on what we hoped would be a solution to this issue by adding language to state budget bill. Unfortunately, we were told last Friday, that this solution would not work and that we would need legislation. We must correct this inequity before July 1 because urban communities begin a new budget year on that date and would become subject to the levy cap. All other communities will be impacted with the budgets beginning on Jan. 1, 2008.

The Assembly, under the leadership of Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman, will consider emergency legislation to exempt municipal libraries from the cap legislation TOMORROW- Thursday, June 21.

We have every indication that there is support for this legislation.We are less certain of Senate approval, and we have learned that the Senate will cancel next week’s scheduled meetings and recess for the Summer. Therefore, it is imperative that this legislation pass tomorrow.

We must have this emergency legislation enacted in the Senate before the Legislature goes on summer break. Please contact your State Senator’s legislative office today and tell them you support emergency legislation to remove municipal libraries from the levy cap and that it must be enacted before summer recess.

Pat Tumulty, Executive Director
New Jersey Library Association
ptumulty@njla.org
609-394-8032

June 20, 2007 at 1:31 pm Amy 2 comments