If you live in Albany, there’s two important votes taking place on Tuesday, May 17th: the Albany City School District budget vote, and the Albany Public Library budget vote. These two institutions are central to the strength of our community. We must make sure they are able to continue to provide quality services to our city. How can you help? First, be sure to vote on Tuesday. You can find your polling place here. Second, help spread the word. We’ve set up a Facebook event, which is an easy way for you to tell your friends about this important vote. Click below to view the event page, RSVP, and then invite all of your friends who live in Albany.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191109374269367
We urge you to vote in favor of the school budget because it will allow our great city schools to continue to provide academic and extracurricular opportunities for our students – all with a zero tax-levy increase for 2011-12 (despite what you may have read in a recent, factually incorrect and anonymous mailing). And, in order to have a zero tax-levy increase for 2011-12, Albany teachers sacrificed all pay increases for the next school year.
We also urge you to support the library budget because our libraries provide critical services to our community, and we must keep them open to all. Improvements to our libraries have increased patronage and brought demand for more hours and programs. Passage of this budget will pay for more books, DVDs and digital materials. It will pay for additional children, teen and adult programming. And, it will pay for modest improvements to the Main Library. Most importantly, it will only cost taxpayers 91 cents a week (less than the cost of a cheap cup of coffee).
Want to read more about the school budget vote? Check out this great blog by Dan Egan, president of the Albany Board of Education.