Tina Scott, center, James Prendergast Library execute director, discusses the 2020 budget for the library during a city budget hearing Monday. Scott asked the Jamestown City Council to advocate for the vote that will take place in May, asking city taxpayers for $350,000 annually for the library. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

James Prendergast Library officials are asking the Jamestown City Council to support a proposed vote this spring to raise $350,000 annually through property taxes.

On Monday, Tina Scott, James Prendergast Library executive director, asked council members to support the vote and to provide accurate information about the library to constituents. She said library officials need voters to approve the $350,000 proposal or the library will lose all of its state funding. She added that the state is cutting 25% of its funding this year to the library and all of its $111,000 funding in 2020.

Scott said the state is cutting its funding because of the $300,000 total cut in city funding in 2017 and 2018. The reduction in state aid is a result of Jamestown officials cutting the library’s funding by more than 5% in a two-year period. Because of its own financial issues, city officials cut funding to the Prendergast Library by 50% ($50,000) in 2018 and 71% ($250,000) in 2017.

“It’s kind of tough to recover from that,” Scott said.

For the first half of the year, the Prendergast Library and the entire library system completed a maintenance of effort waiver application to possibly avoid the cut in state aid. Library officials had to apply for the waiver because of the state’s Maintenance of Effort for Public Library Systems clause, which tries to ensure that local municipalities will also fund the library so the state isn’t the only taxing entity supporting the facility. Because library officials didn’t receive the waiver, the state will be cutting its funding.

Scott said if the $350,000 in library funding is approved by the voters, it will remain at that level in future years. She said the only way the funding amount could change in the future is if voters approve a new amount. She added that if the voters approve of the funding, the proposed $111,000 state aid cut wouldn’t occur.

“The community needs the library as much as the library needs the community,” she said.

Anthony Dolce, Ward 2 councilman, asked how much funding would the library need to receive from the city to prevent the state aid cut. Scott said the city would need to restore funding to the library back to the $350,000 level.

Following the discussion with Scott about the library, the council discussed the potential savings of $150,000 through prescription drug costs. Earlier this month, Joseph Bellitto, city comptroller, and Sam Teresi, Jamestown mayor, discussed that the cost for prescription drugs next year could be reduced by more than $350,000.

In the proposed 2020 executive budget, city officials had estimated to pay around $2.3 million in prescription claims for current and retired city employees enrolled in the city self-insured health care program. However, Bellitto said the state health care program and the Affordable Care Act will allowed the city to enroll in a new rebate program that could result in $357,182 in savings.

Even with the potential savings of more than $300,000, Teresi told council members that there is no guaranteed savings so they need to be careful with final budget numbers. He recommended the council only factor in a savings of $150,000.

When discussing what should be done with the potential $150,000 savings, Andrew Liuzzo, At-Large councilman, suggested that a portion or all of the savings should go toward the library. However, Maria Jones, Ward 5, and Thomas Nelson, Ward 6, suggested the savings should go toward reducing taxes.

According to information provided by Bellitto, if the prescription drug savings went toward the 2020 budget, it would mean a 22 cent reduction in the proposed tax rate and $150,000 decrease in the tax levy.

On Oct. 8, Teresi released the proposed city budget, which included an $82,942, or 0.52%, tax levy increased. According to the state Department of Taxation and Finances, the tax levy is the amount raised through property taxes.

The tax rate was proposed to be the same as in 2019 at $23.85 per $1,000 assessed property value. According to the state Department of Taxation and Finances, the tax rate is determined by dividing the tax levy by the total taxable assessed value of all property in a jurisdiction.

The council has a deadline of Dec. 1 to pass a budget, which could include the proposed reduction in prescription cost, or the executive budget will go into effect next year.

In other business, the council received more positive financial news from Bellitto. He said third quarter sales tax revenues increased to a possible all-time high. He added that sales tax revenues in the third quarter totaled $1,927,439, which is an increase of $114,989, or 6.34%, above last year’s third quarter.

Bellitto said through three quarters, the city has received $5,051,806, or 81.8%, of its $6.2 million sales tax budget. He said this is an increase of $186,542, or 3.83%, above the first three quarters of 2018.

The council also held a public hearing on the proposed 2020 budget. Only one person spoke during the budget hearing. Doug Champ, city resident and retired BPU employee, suggested that city officials should create a new division of the city-owned utility to deal with the stormwater system. He said the proposed new division could be funded through customer fees just like other BPU services. He added that this way the whole city would pay for the maintenance of the stormwater system instead of just taxpayers.

Champ also suggested that city officials should hire a private company to handle leaf pickup and that it should restore its funding to the James Prendergast Library.