Addresses for Constituents

Here are a list of addresses of Broome County Legislators for you to contact regarding the Broome County Library. These are their home addresses, but the addresses are publicly listed - I'm not publishing anything that the legislators have not already published themselves. The e-mail addresses are legislator business addresses, if you're uncomfortable sending mail directly to your legislator.

1	Mark R. Whalen	722-7161	11	Ronald J. Keibel	692-4461
	11 The Arena Street			PO Box 395
	Binghamton, NY 13903			Whitney Point, NY 13862
	mwhalen2@co.broome.ny.us			rkeibel@co.broome.ny.us
2	Joseph A. Merrill	743-2935	12	Michael P. Sopchak	798-7764
	73 Prospect Street			151 Deyo Hill Road
	Binghamton, NY 13905			Johnson City, NY 13790
	jmerrill@co.broome.ny.us			msopchak@co.broome.ny.us
3	Jason T. Garnar	724-3765	13	Matthew J. Pasquale	754-7189
	564 Chenango Street			512 Irving Avenue
	Binghamton, NY 13901			Endicott, NY 13760
	jagarnar@co.broome.ny.us			mpasquale@co.broome.ny.us
4	Joseph S. Sanfilippo	729-5327	14	David M. Jensen	237-6191
	44 Crestmont Road			1312 Irma Avenue
	Binghamton, NY 13905			Endicott, NY 13760
	jsanfilippo@co.broome.ny.us			djensen@co.broome.ny.us
5	John F. Hutchings	724-0818	15	Michael W. Schafer	754-6940
	2 Christopher Street			2707 Alexander Street
	Binghamton, NY 13903			Endicott, NY 13760
	jhutchings@co.broome.ny.us			mschafer@co.broome.ny.us
6	Julie A. Lewis	757-9410	16	John A. Black	754-4335
	250 Powderhouse Road			845 Debonair Drive
	Vestal, NY 13850			Endwell, NY 13760
	jlewis2@co.broome.ny.us			jblack@co.broome.ny.us
7	Marchie Diffendorf	775-3128	17	Ron Heebner	729-2953
	483 Gorman Road			435 Main Street #123
	Kirkwood, NY 13795			Johnson City, NY 13790
	mdiffendorf@co.broome.ny.us			rheebner@co.broome.ny.us
8	Wayne L. Howard	648-4567	18	Daniel J. Reynolds	757-2902
	PO Box 9			309 Clayton Avenue
	Port Crane, NY 13833			Vestal, NY 13850
	whoward2@co.broome.ny.us			djreynolds@co.broome.ny.us
9	Stephen D. Herz	655-2604	19	Daniel D. Reynolds	797-2517
	787 State Route 79			2404 Charleston Avenue
	Windsor, NY 13865			Vestal, NY 13850
	sherz@co.broome.ny.us			dreynolds@co.broome.ny.us
10	Jerry F. Marinich	648-9903
	40 Clearview Place
	Binghamton, NY 13901
	jmarinich@co.broome.ny.us

If you don’t know your election district, call The Election Board.
Election Board: 607-778-2172

Here is Debra Preston's address. Ms. Preston is the County Executive, in charge of drafting the budget.

Debra A. Preston, County Executive
PO Box 1766
Binghamton, NY 13902

Phone: 607.778.2109
Fax: 607.778.2044
CountyExecutive@co.broome.ny.us

Important Data

(By request, I have increased the font size)
Here is some budgetary data:

The Broome County Public Library's budget accounts for 0.6% of the total County budget. Cutting the library's budget is not going to do very much to save money for the County. However, the library is an un-mandated institution as far as funding goes in New York State. Thus, it is an easy target.

When the new main library building opened in 2000, it was a 72,000 square foot building. The library was open to the public 60 hours a week. These things remain true. However, in 2000, there were 47 full time staff members to work those 60 hours and maintain the 72,000 square feet. Since 2008, those staffing numbers have plummeted.

2008: 34.88 Full Time Staff
2009: 32.49 Full Time Staff
2010: 31.78 Full Time Staff
2011: 22.96 Full Time Staff
2012: 22.29 Full Time Staff
Projected 2013: 22.29 Full Time Staff

At some point, the number of full time staff drops below a minimum necessary staffing number. At that point, the library is forced to make some painful and damaging cuts, either to book purchases or to open hours, or both. Either decision adversely affects the mission of the library.

The County Executive will respond to complaints about library staffing by saying, as they have in the past, that there are mandated costs of health insurance, retirement costs, and CSEA (Civil Service Employees of America) Union raises which cannot be avoided. Maintaining the library at it's current level of funding will require cuts somewhere else or raising taxes. Rescue Our Local Library (ROLL) feels that we have reached a point in terms of cutting library funding where the County Executive needs to either look for cuts elsewhere or raise taxes to fund the vital services of the library.

The 2013 budget will go from the Executive to the County Legislature at the end of August. The Legislature votes on the budget on September 20, after which convincing the Legislature to add funding back in for the library will become increasingly difficult. Within the next week, this site will feature addresses at which County residents can contact their legislator and sample letters that they can send to their legislator. More facts about the budget and the library will be posted as they become available. 

For more information on ROLL, interested parties can contact Cathy Stuckart, the coordinator, at cathyst@stny.rr.com. 
For more information about this site, Mike Timonin is the webmaster, and can be contacted at mike.timonin@gmail.com

What This Is

The Broome County Public Library is funded, in large part, but the Broome County Legislature. The library represents a tiny portion of the county's overall budget, but since the library's funding is not mandated by the state (unlike school funding and many other things) the legislature can easily restrict funding for the library when it feel that it needs to save money.  The current budget for the county proposes to slash the funding for the library. This space will, hopefully, serve as a place to organize against that decision, providing concerned people with resources, including addresses for their legislators and the Broome County executive.  There will also be information about the budget process and the funding for the library. Finally, there will be sample letters that concerned citizens can use as a template to send to their county legislators and the county executive.