The Great Neck Library proposed a $10.4 million tentative budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, featuring a 4.42% tax increase amid the rising insurance and employee benefits costs the library faces.

The library’s proposed budget of $10,402,793 is a 3.89% increase from its current budget of $10,013,629.

Taxes amount to 98.9% of the library’s total revenues funding its budget in the next fiscal year, according to the proposal.

The library’s 4.42% tax increase falls under the library’s allowable tax cap, proposed to bring in $10,284,418 in revenues next fiscal year.

Business manager Steven Kashkin said a portion of the proposed tax increase is in response to the library’s expected 42.31% drop of PILOT revenues, or payments in lieu of taxes, due to three large businesses previously engaged in PILOT joining the tax roll.

PILOT revenues account for 0.7%, or $75,000, of the 2024-2025 budgeted revenues.

Like many other municipalities, the Great Neck Library is also having to consider rising costs, specifically in employee benefits, when drafting the budget for the next fiscal year.

Kashkin said the biggest expense growth for the library is employee benefits.

Total employee benefits and taxes for the library are projected to increase in the next fiscal year by nearly 12%, or $244,475.

Health insurance costs for both employees and retirees is projected to increase by about 10.5% for each.

New York State retirement expenses for full-time employees are also anticipated to increase by 28%, or $105,529, and 25.88% for part-time employees, or $14,123, in the proposed budget.

Employee benefits for current employees constitute a 10.94% increase in the next fiscal year, and a 10.11% increase for retired employees, according to the library’s proposed budget.

“Each year is different,” Kashkin said. “We’ve had years where we’ve only had a 1% or 2% increase, and this year is a big one.”

Salary expenses are also expected to rise in 2024-2025.

The total salaries for full-time employees are proposed to increase by 3.83%, or $139,150, under the proposed budget. Kashkin attributed this growth to adjustments in salaries for department heads, a 2% increase for union employees and a full year’s salary for a library clerk.

The total salaries for part-time employees are proposed to decrease by 4.98%, or $51,925, which Kashkin said is due to the replacement of higher-paid staff who left with lower-paid, newly hired employees, and a push off of the hiring of three pages employees until later in the fiscal year.

Kashkin said the library’s employment for the next fiscal year has remained fairly the same, without any employee additions.

Overall, salaries are proposed to increase by 1.86%.

With changes in patron usage and the availability to purchase products, the library is looking to decrease its purchasing of audiobook CDs, amounting to a 40%, or $10,000, drop in budgeted expenses for these products.

Instead, the library is looking to invest more in digital books and audiobooks, with a 31.43%, or $27,500, increase in expenses for online books.

“We right now are really having a hard time keeping up with that demand,” Corcoran said, adding that waitlists are increasing for online books available through the library.

Corcoran said purchasing digital books is more expensive than printed books due to licensing fees.

Funding for programming is proposed to increase in the 2024-2025 budget proposal, with a 9.93% increase in adult programming expenses and a 6.6% increase in children’s programming. Programming encompasses all four library locations, and children’s programming increases are attributed in part to support the recently certified Family Place Library.

So far in the current fiscal year, the library has only been awarded $100 in New York State grants, a steep decline from $35,000 awarded in 2022 and $10,000 in 2023. Trustee Liman Mimi Hu asked whether more could be sourced from the state, but Kashkin said lobbying for more grant money may not yield results.

Kashkin said the library’s debt service will be discussed at the board’s next meeting, with a decision pending on whether or not to pay down its bond this year.

The Great Neck Library Board of Trustees will hold its next budget meeting on March 25 before it is planned to be adopted on April 1. The board of trustees will convene next on March 19 for its regularly scheduled meeting.