MASSENA -- Officials from the Massena Public Library will be at the March 19 Board of Education meeting to discuss their proposal to go from a municipal library to a school district library.

The meeting will be that day at 6:30 p.m. in the High School's room 314.

At the February Town Council meeting, Library Trustee Joseph Savoca gave a presentation and claimed Massena residents would pay slightly less in library taxes under the Massena Public Library's proposal to receive their taxes through the school district.

Town taxpayers currently fund the library through a portion of their annual tax payments to the Town of Massena. Under the proposal, the Massena Central School District would collect a library tax from all residents within their boundaries, which includes the Town of Massena and parts of the towns of Louisville, Norfolk and Brasher.

Savoca said they are asking for the taxation to expand to the school district because the library is "contributing to the communities ... within the whole school district area." And their funding through the town has remained stagnant for about the last decade, leading to staff cuts and subsequent reduction of hours. Officials said they may have to make more cuts if they don't shift to the school district collecting their taxes.

"New York state has created this type of library because it considers libraries and schools as educational institutions with similar goals," Ryan said, adding that Potsdam's library gets its funding this way.

The voters on June 16 will decide if the library will move from being funded through the town to being funded through the school district. The vote will be from noon to 8 p.m. at the library and is open to any Massena school district resident age 18 or older. There is a 30-day residency requirement in order to be eligible to vote. The vote will also establish a minimum annual funding for the library of $695,283. If the library wants a future funding increase, they will have to ask the voters to approve it during the annual school budget vote as a separate ballot item. They would also be limited by a 2% tax cap.

Under the $695,283 initial funding level, the owner of a $50,000 property in the Town of Massena would be taxed $44. Because the library is now financed by taxes from taxpayers in just the Town of Massena, that same property owner would pay $62 of their town tax bill toward the library, according to a presentation library officials showed at the meeting.

The presentation said the owner of a $100,000 property would pay $88 in library tax if the school district collects the taxes, and $124 if the town collects their taxes.

Taxpayers in the Town of Massena would fund 70% of their budget. Taxpayers in the Louisville portion of the Massena school district would fund 22%. Taxpayers in the Norfolk part of the Massena school district would fund a little over 5%. Taxpayers in the Brasher portion of the Massena school district would fund about 2%, the presentation said.

Library trustees would be elected on the same ballot as school board trustees. Any school district resident over age 18 would be able to run for the library board.