Library tax petition coming

By TOM KANE

MILFORD, PA - The Pike County Commissioners, who also sit on the Pike County Board of Elections, is requiring the Pike County Public Library Board to generate a petition if it wants to include a referendum on a library tax in the November election.

According to state statute, the petition must be signed by three percent of the voters from the last municipal election, which occurred on November 2008.

“Three percent would be about 800 names on the petition,” said Thomas Farley, county attorney.

According to state statute, the tax, if passed, would legislate a one mill tax on the assessed value of every homeowner’s property. That would mean a homeowner would multiply .001 times his or her assessed value. A home with the assessed value of $50,000 would have a library tax of $50.

The vote, which was held during the commissioner’s conference meeting on June 3, received a “nay” from commissioner Karl Wagner.

“I voted against it because we have the authority to put it on the ballot ourselves,” Wagner said. “We have never required a petition before and I saw no reason to do it now.”

Commissioners Rich Caridi and Harry Forbes expressed a different opinion.

“I believe it should be very clear if, when the people vote in favor of it, they are agreeing to be taxed,” Forbes said. “It should be absolutely transparent what we are doing. To demand a petition would put the issue before voters earlier so that when they go to the polls, they are aware of what they are doing.”

Caridi mentioned a historical incident that had relevance to this issue. “When Wayne County had such a referendum on the ballot, it was passed with only a small number of voters participating.When the rest of the residents learned about the outcome of the vote, there was an outburst of criticism, so much so that a revote was taken and the decision reversed. I don’t want to see this kind of thing happen here. This petition would educate voters what the issues are and the referendum vote would mean something.”

In other library news, it was announced by the library board that the Milford Borough Council unanimously voted to accept the recommendations of the Milford Architectural Review Board (ARB) for approval of the conceptual design for the library’s new headquarters. The design submitted to the ARB complies with Milford’s Historic District Ordinance, they said.