Finkelstein voters show up
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- April
- 23
On Wednesday, Finkelstein Library’s 2009-2010 passed overwhelmingly, an interesting commentary for in a community that struggles to pass budgets. The library, the largest in Rockland, serves the East Ramapo school district.
Last year, the library’s proposed $6.6 million spending plan was defeated at the polls. Cuts to weekend hours and some rules about circulation were made to trim costs. This year, a $7 million budget passed. Why? Well, certainly not because there was less opposition. Like the 2008-2009 budget plan, this year’s spending plan was lobbied against by the Southeast Taxpayers Association. Plus, the economy is even worse, and so is the real estate market, so it’s a big ask to convince homeowners to up their property tax bills.
So, why did the budget pass this year? Well, let’s look at the voter turnout numbers:
Last year, 747 voted against the budget and 567 voted for it.
This year, according to an unofficial tally that includes absentee ballots, 1,901 voted for the budget, and 822 against it.
It’s all about turnout: This year, 2,723 cast ballots. Last year, 1,314 voted. More than twice as many people voted this year (1,409). So, does this vote reflect the community more than the other? Considering that there are 93,000 is Finkelstein service area (with 43,000 cardholders) even the more-than-double turnout is hardly a reflection of eligible voters. But this year’s lesson is a good one: You have to show up to be heard.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 7:15 pm by Nancy Cutler.
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nancy, great article. as i’ve noted many times via lohud.com, the SE Ramapo Taxpayers Association seems to be made up of exactly one person (Mr K. Weber) ... and whose interests are in the Hasidic/Orthodox community (you’d think they’d have their own library and yet, lots of those folks at Finkelstein every day… so why vote against it)... thank god the rest of the mixing bowl of East Ramapo showed up to support the great library they have.