Parkland Library Threatens to Take School Board to Court

Lawyers for Parkland Community Library said Friday in a release that they would take the Parkland School District to court over its proposed lowering of the library tax that has been on the books since 1998.

On Tuesday, school board board directors voted to lower the proposed special library tax pegged for the Parkland Community Library from .3 mill to a proposed .1 mill.

The library tax was approved by voters in a 1998 referendum.

Lawyers for the library said the planned reduction in millage would further postpone the construction of the new library project planned in Upper Macungie.

Library lawyer Samuel Feldman said the board's lowering of the millage rate "is without basis in law," and that a millage change can only be approved by another voter referendum.

He added that the library tax provides no funds to the school district and the only role of the district is to collect the tax. He said the library tax has no impact on the school budget or the school district's tax rate.

"Respectfully, the Board of Directors of Parkland Community Library urges Parkland School District Board of Directors to reconsider its position so that both Parkland School District and Parkland Community Library may use their limited resources to maintain the quality services offered to the community—and not subject taxpayers to the costs of litigation," Feldman said.

they are not opposed to the construction of a new library. However, they argued that they are carrying out taxpayers' wishes in adjusting the library millage because voters through the 1998 referendum wanted their tax dollars to only be used to maintain the library.

"The voters approved a special library tax for the maintenance of the Library, not to create a building fund to construct a new building," the statement said.  

The Parkland Community Library, currently located at 4422 Walbert Ave in South Whitehall, serves Upper Macungie, South Whitehall and North Whitehall townships and a section of Allentown that is part of the Parkland School District.

The board said the adjustment to the rate was required as a result of the Lehigh County reassessment and the change of the pre-determined ratio effective Jan. 1 for the municipalities and July 1 for school boards in Lehigh County.

Parkland said in its statement that the library tax would triple without the adjustment. "The law does not permit a windfall at the taxpayer’s expense," the statement said.

"We understand the position that the Parkland School District is in, with regard to its budget,' said Karl Siebert, President of the Board of Directors of the Parkland Community Library. "However, we are not part of the school’s budget, not run by the Parkland School District and not subject to Act 1. The current library budget amounts to less than 1% of the size of [the school district's] annual budget and we are subject to the Pennsylvania Library Code."

Final Parkland School Board action on the matter is scheduled for June 25, the same night a vote is scheduled for the final 2013-14 school budget.