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The Board of Finance decided to discontinue the taxpayers' $350,000 annual contribution to the Southport library by a 5-4 vote in its budget deliberations last month. The reduction, which would take effect July 1, represents more than a third of Pequot’s total funding for the year.
An online petition launched this week has already collected more than 1,500 signatures asking for Fairfield’s funding to the library to be restored. Many town leaders, including the full Board of Selectmen and the Republican Town Committee, have spoken publicly in support of reversing the decision.
“There was a strong sentiment among the committee that if cuts were to be made to non-profits they should be phased in over time,” RTC Chair James Millington said in a statement announcing a unanimous vote in support of the library.
Though the Pequot Library is run by a private, nonprofit organization, it is open to the public and its collection is included in the Fairfield library system along with the collections of the Fairfield Public Library.
Philip Eliasoph, a Fairfield University art history professor and arts commissioner on the state Commission of Arts and Tourism, said closing the Pequot Library could have an economic impact of Fairfield as a whole. He points to a study by his commission that found that out-of-town attendees at cultural events, such as those held at the Pequot Library, spend more than $35 per visit at local businesses.
“Just imagine the tens of thousands of visitors who attend the Pequot Library’s nationally respected book sale – and then consider wiping away the dollars they spend at local establishments,” Eliasoph wrote in an open letter.
Fairfield’s budget is not final yet. The Representative Town Meeting has the last say on the town’s spending in its annual budget vote in early May.
But the while the RTM can vote to reduce the town’s spending in any department, it cannot increase the amount approved by the Board of Finance by a simple majority. The Town Charter does provide for an appeals process, however.
Department heads can file an appeal before the RTM’s final vote May 6. The 50-member RTM would then hold a hearing for the appellant and the Board of Finance to make their cases. The RTM can then restore some or all of the funding by a two-thirds vote.
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