AMY PAULIN IN THE NEWS
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Library Injustice
[Times Union]
It won't require a trip deep into the stacks of reference books that can be found in any library, large or small, to follow this particular tale of unfairness. No need, either, to log on to some library's computer and gain access to the Web.
Understanding the raw deal that the people who work at what are known as Association Libraries are getting requires not much more than remembering that even smaller, more rural libraries are funded by the public and serve a public purpose.
The librarians at these facilities, including ones in Altamont, Brunswick and Knox, are public employees. All of them, not just some of them, ought to be included in New York's public pension system.
End of story, then, happy ending and all? We wish.
Legislation sponsored by state Sen. Hugh Farley, R-Niskayuna, and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale, that would extend pension benefits to the 1,000 or so librarians working for the 343 of the state's 361 association libraries that don't have them is going nowhere. That assessment comes straight from Mr. Farley.
Such entirely sensible legislation is all but dead because the Civil Service Employees Association wants it dead. Its misguided contention is that these libraries aren't government entities at all, but rather nonprofit organizations.
They don't operate at any profit, of course. But then, no government agency or quasi-governmental body does. The money that keeps these libraries open comes out of budgets approved by town and village boards. The budgets for larger municipal libraries are voted on in local elections. In both cases, the money comes from local taxpayers.
The real difference between the larger libraries, where the librarians can contribute to the state pension fund, and the smaller ones, where the librarians can't, is that the former are unionized and the latter tend not to be.
That's what CSEA spokesman Stephen Madarasz seems to be alluding to when he says, "You can't cross that line without starting to create some issues."
So why isn't CSEA protesting the fact that 18 Association Libraries are in the pension system? Or are the ones in New York City, represented as they are by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, suddenly legitimate government bodies?
Until Mr. Farley and Ms. Paulin's bills become law, any librarian of any affiliation and pension status will have no choice but to catalog this issue under the category of injustice.
THE ISSUE: Some librarians aren't part of the state pension system.
THE STAKES: They are public employees who deserve better.