Legislators hear feedback on library cuts, union terms at budget hearing

The Tompkins County Legislature hosted a public hearing regarding the 2025 county budget on Oct. 30. Several members of the public spoke in favor of increasing funding for the Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL), as the current proposed budget would cut TCPL’s budget by 5%. 

Before the supporters of the library spoke, Matthew Phillips, a homeowner in Tompkins County and an employee at Tompkins County Whole Health, gave his opinions on several matters. Phillips stated that he was speaking for himself and not the CSEA White Collar union when he asked the county to use its fund balance to cover the additional roughly $500,000 that the county is collecting in property taxes to pay for services.

The fund balance “seems to increase every year and never decreases,” while property taxes continue to go up, Phillips said. He also took issue with the terms of the current Tompkins County union contract.

“I’d like to give you some feedback, coming from one employee — not all employees,” he said. “Our White Collar contract for the next four years gives us an increase of 14%, while we just saw our neighbors at Cornell and Borg Warner getting 21% for the next four years. We’re getting a 3% raise, while our health insurance costs go up 14%.”

Phillips added that the county opted out of paid family leave in 2017.

“I had a child in August, and I was lucky enough to conserve all of my PTO [paid time off] to get a good two weeks off to stay home with my newborn and recovering wife,” he said. “But not having paid family leave to cover any of that time has left me vulnerable to burnout and negative morale for the rest of the year, since I don’t have any other time [off] to use.”

“In closing,” Phillips said, “I’m in a county whose mission is to provide an equitable environment for all. How do we overlook this major need for our employees, who often spend more hours at work than they do at home?”

Several TCPL employees then spoke in favor of the library’s funding being restored. 

In September, TCPL presented its budget report to the budget committee of the legislature; the library, which had a total budget of $4,244,682 for 2024, would see a $212,234 reduction in its budget if the 5% cut to reach its fiscal target is not restored in the county budget.

Paired with increased operating expenses, this cut would result in the reduction of 5 to 7 positions, impacting service hours and programs. An over-target request to restore $216,587 to the budget was proposed but not recommended by the county administrator, according to county documents.

“I wanted to just remind you, which I’m sure you may not need, but that these cuts represent people who will not be able to pay their mortgages or feed their families or pay for medical care if they are losing their jobs,” TCPL employee Effie Johnson stated at the recent public hearing.

“With the budget presentation that was recently done, it was stated in that meeting that in order to get the level of funding that we needed, we would have to raise taxes a quarter of a percent, I believe is what you said. So, I just did a little math, and maybe I’m not a great mathematician, but if you had a property tax of $12,600 raised by a quarter of a percent that would be $31.50. So, I guess I feel that that’s a small price to pay for five to seven positions of employees that would be able to feed their families and do what we need to do in the world,” Johnson added.

Kelly Doolittle, library assistant at TCPL, said that she has been serving the organization for 23 years.

“I can tell you it’s the frontline staff that hear from and serve our public every day that truly makes the library the place of welcome and aid that patrons have come to respect and love,” Doolittle said. “It’s the frontline staff who create award-winning programming for our youngest patrons and their families — engaging programming that utilizes the best early literacy concepts to help set up children for success as they navigate and grow in their lives.”

She listed some of the other ways in which the library serves the community, including its role as a safe place where children and teens “can be themselves” and its function as a resource for immigrants and seniors.

“I’m asking you to consider the lifelong value that Tompkins County Public Library staff have striven to offer to these communities,” Doolittle said, “and to help us — old and new — to keep that service alive and growing with proper funding.”

The proposed 2025 county budget will go before the county’s Budget, Capital and Personnel Committee on Nov. 14. Legislature Chair Daniel Klein said that the budget is expected to go up for vote by the full legislature at its meeting on Nov. 19.