I always welcome letters to the editor for this blog. This is the place to voice your concerns about issues that affect us in the towns of Hartland and Royalton.
One of our readers has done just that. Mary Cedeno sent us a letter about the library tax issue which has really caught off-guard a vast majority of taxpayers in the school district.
Here's Mary's letter...
Three ladies in the library
If you were like my husband and I, you received your school tax bill in the mail, set it aside, and then really looked at, when you were about to write the check. What you may NOT have seen, was the NEW line item titled "Library Tax". When I contacted the School to investigate this NEW tax, I discovered that the Middleport Free Library had a vote in June to add a new tax to our bills. I wondered how this all came about, and why didn't I hear anything about this, or get a card in the mail about the vote???
I began to get even more interested when I learned that the vote tally was 176 votes for, and 12 against. The result is, that in a school district of over 9400 voters, LESS than 2% of the people were polled.
I was even more interested to learn that the only communication the library bothered to put out were the required notices in the legal section of the Lockport and Medina newspapers, and apparently a sign at the local village Wilson Farms.
If you know anything about the Roy-Hart school district, you know it's BIG. The district encompasses parts of SIX towns, Royalton, Hartland, Shelby, Ridgeway, Alabama and Lockport. Yet, it appears that only the PATRONS of the library and few passers by of the local Wilson Farms were even notified of this vote.
According to the NY State Education law, section 259 a vote for new library tax is to be held only AFTER a public campaign is held to inform the voters, AND the tally needs to be at least 10% of the number who voted for Governor in the last Governors election, AND it needs to be held by GENERAL ELECTION. General Election, to my mind means the first Tuesday in November, in the voting booth at our normal polling place. I was stunned to learn that this vote was taken AT the library, by paper ballot.
If you have your taxes paid through escrow, this new tax will have totally gone unnoticed by you; and the fact that you knew nothing about a vote in the community to add it to your bill, well, I guess that is just the way it goes if you ask the Library Board. They feel they did everything their lawyer told them to, so it's a done deal. No problem for them that less than 2% of the affected community was able to have a voice.
Yes, voter apathy runs rampant in our communities and throughout the country. However, it appears to me that the Library failed to announce the vote to the community, and thought (perhaps hoped?) that they could get away with this nearly secretive vote, since it went in their favor. Our part of the state is constantly being hoodwinked by the dirty dealings of Three Men in a Room in Albany. Now, we apparently have to worry about Three Ladies in the Library too!
Why Mrs. Wagner and the rest of the Library Board thinks that a poll of less than 2% of the community is valid to strap everyone in the school district with a new tax, well, that's beyond my understanding. But if you come out to the Library for the public meeting on Monday at 7pm, you can ask them yourself. Hope to see you there, 9 Vernon St., Middleport, bring a friend!
