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Lansing Library opponent Dan Pace was at the Board Of Education meeting Monday to present a petition to the school board to ask them to hold a vote to take the Lansing Community Library off of the tax roles.  After library supported won a vote last May to create a 'School District Charter Library' that would collect a small tax for operating expenses, Pace petitioned the State Education Department to annul the vote and/or to permit another vote to try to take the library off the tax rolls.

"We did win on the other part in that we the people of Lansing through State Education Law 268  does provide that any library established by vote may be abolished by majority vote in an election," Pace told the board.  "We've got about seven or eight pages of signatures here.  We could have gotten a lot more.  We'd like the board to address this issue and have a revote on the library to remove it from the tax roles.  Not to abolish it, but to remove it from the tax roles."

Members of the Friends Of The Library board observed silently as Pace handed his petition to School Superintendent Stephen Grimm.  "We came to witness the proceedings," says Friends President Donna Scott.  "We understand that the next step for the school is that the school attorney will look at the petition and make his judgment on it.  We will wait and see what action the attorney advises the school board to take.  We'll certainly talk to our attorney about this matter, too.  But we thought it would be premature at this point before the school attorney helps them decide what to do with this petition."

Pace challenged the May vote on the grounds of voter fraud, saying that without confirmation of voter registration non-district residents had illegally voted.  That led to a change in school district policy, which now requires voter registration.  But State officials ruled that the May vote was legal.


Scott says that library officials are taking a 'wait and see' stance.  "We don't know what action their attorney is going to say about it," she says.  "We don't want to venture any opinions that may just be wrong."

Since getting the thumbs up from voters the library has hired a professional librarian, and with additional money from Tompkins County hired a part time clerk.  Volunteers remain the main part of the workforce.  The library currently boasts 2828 active library card holders, with an average of five to ten new patrons getting library cards per week.  Circulation in November and December was almost 1,000 items.  In addition the library has hosted several public programs, most recently including an exhibit of photographs and models of trains, and the recently restored children's 'Story Time'.

The library tax rate is about twelve and a half cents per thousand dollars of assessed value.  For most Lansing taxpayer the actual dollars paid amount to less than the cost of one new hardcover book.  A home assed at $150,000 means $18.84 in library tax.


Pace tried to cushion his position by stipulating that he is against the tax, but not the institution.  "We don't believe in abolishing the library," he said.  "We think that the library should go back to a privately donated independent library."

But Scott says it would be impossible for volunteers to handle the scope of services the library now provides without professionals on the staff.  "It's not too hard to keep volunteers to work the desk," she says.  "That's what the public sees.  But the really hardest job has been fund raising.  We cannot support the operation that it has become with volunteers.  We need the inspiration of having a steady, stable income to run the library and to pay our staff."

Grimm and School Board President Anne Drake told Pace they would review the petition and let him know what action, if any, the school board decides to take.

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