On Tuesday, March 7, registered voters in the Oneida Public Library’s Special Library District voted 423 in favor and 273 against to pass the proposed library operating budget for its upcoming fiscal year, July 1, 2017 –June 30, 2018.
In addition, voters elected Brad Adams with 518 ballots and Katherine Wojciechowski with 534 to five-year terms on the OPL Board of Trustees, starting July 1, 2017. Adams, an Oneida resident, is a vice president at NBT Bank, while Wojciechowski, a resident of Oneida Castle, teaches at Holy Cross Academy in the town of Vernon.
The approved OPL operating budget for FY 2017-18 is $403,900, representing a 5.7 percent increase over the budgets of FY 2014-15, FY 2015-16 and FY 2016-17. The budgets for all three preceding fiscal years was the same at $382,110.
The new budget has a Special Library District tax levy of $355,900, an increase of 6.5 percent over the levy of the preceding three annual operating budgets. Other anticipated funds are public funding of $15,000; private funding of $21,000; and library revenue of $12,000 generated by fines and ancillary fees.