AMENIA — Town Board members have taken action to secure additional funding for the Amenia Free Library after ballot proposition paperwork failed to make it to election officials on time.
Amenia Free Library Executive Director Victoria Herow said library board members had worked to collect necessary signatures by June 29 for a ballot proposition to ask voters for a $10,000 budget increase. Then, on Aug. 22, she was informed that the paperwork had reached the Dutchess County Board of Elections after the deadline and was ineligible for this year’s election.
Federal and state law requires ballot propositions be filed no later than three months prior to Election Day. That deadline fell on Aug. 3 this year.
Amenia Town Clerk Dawn Marie Klingner filed the library’s ballot proposition with the county’s Board of Elections with a letter dated Aug. 17, two weeks after the deadline. She said the late submission amounted to a clerical oversight on her part, but voiced frustration with what she described as poor communication from the Board of Elections.
“I looked down at the beautiful purple folder and I was like ‘oh let’s send that out right now,’” Klingner said. “In years past that we’ve done this, it’s gone out in August.”
Klingner pointed to the 2023 election cycle, when she submitted the library’s budget increase proposition with a letter dated Aug. 29, 2023. The library asked for a $50,000 increase that year and won it at the ballot box. The library and Klingner successfully filed paperwork for $20,000 increases in 2024 and 2025 as well.
Dutchess County Republican Elections Commissioner Erik Haight pushed back on Klingner’s criticism, pointing to the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act passed in 2009 and state law that codify the three month deadline for ballot propositions.
“She’s obviously aware that she filed it late,” Haight said in an email. “She filed it late and as a function of law we lack the authority to put the prop on the ballot.”
She said she became aware of the error a week later on Aug. 24, and began working with town attorney Ian Lindars to get in touch with county election commissioners and attempt to rectify the issue. After four days of negotiation, the Board of Elections declined to make an exception and upheld the deadline.
With the ballot proposition out of the question, Herow and library board members had resigned themselves to making do without the $10,000.
“We have to be very careful about everything,” Herow said. “That’s just part of it. It means next year we’ll have to ask for a smidge more to help meet whatever costs.”
The Amenia Free Library collected a total of $283,700 in revenue from varying sources in 2026, according to an operating budget summary on the library’s website. A bulk of that revenue — $265,000 in 2026 — comes from taxes paid in the Town of Amenia.
Town Board members have opted to grant the additional funds as part of Amenia’s municipal budgeting process. Lindars explained that libraries such as the Amenia Free library have two options for budget increases — a voter referendum or through Town Board approval.
Library expenses totaled $295,800 in 2026, resulting in a $12,100 deficit this year that Herow expected to grow. The $10,000 in additional funds was meant to modestly offset that deficit.
“Our costs go up just like everybody else’s,” Herow said. “Electricity, insurance, materials, the cost of running the building.”
Herow echoed Klingner’s concerns about poor communication. She said library board president Alan Gamble hand-delivered the necessary petitions to Klingner at Amenia Town Hall on June 29. There was no communication with the library until Aug. 22, when Herow heard from Dutchess County Democratic Committee Chair Michael Dupree that election commissioners had received the paperwork late.
Similarly, Klingner said she was not informed that the submission was late until she heard from a third party.
