State Budget Edging Toward Conclusion; Urge House Members to Boost Library Funding ASAP!

After weeks of deals, semi-deals, and dead-end journeys, we finally may be nearing a real conclusion to the state budget.  All sides seem to be closing in on a new budget that spends $27.834 billion.  In this plan, the Public Library Subsidy would be funded at $60 million (a 21% reduction), Library Access at $3 million, and the Electronic Library Catalog would be zeroed out and merged with Library Access.  (Libraries for the Blind would be funded at $2.9 million; the State Library cut of 50% would stay in effect.)

Clearly, $60 million represents a serious cut but is a dramatic improvement over several other proposals that slashed the subsidy to $37 million (a cut of 54%.)  Under no circumstances can we afford to go below $60 million.

Last year, the Library Access line item funded POWER Library, statewide reciprocal borrowing and the Interlibrary Delivery Service, and the Electronic Library Catalog line item funded the Access PA database, the Ask Here PA 24/7 virtual reference service, and the Access PA Millennium shared library management system used in 75 school and public libraries.

Together, these two line items totaled $11.1 million last year.  Clearly, funding the merged Library Access programs at only $3 million will lead to greatly reduced services.  

The State Senate passed this bill (SB 1085) on October 6.  It is expected that the State House now will take up their version of a new state budget.  Discussion, debate and voting on some version of the budget are expected to take place in the State House, perhaps as soon as today.

Action Needed ASAP:
We know that House Members will be debating S.B. 1085 (or a similar House version) ASAP. Email your State Representative. Or call their Harrisburg Office.  As budget discussions continue, urge her/him to:
1.    Support efforts to fund the Public Library Subsidy at a level closer to the $68 million requested by the Governor.  This would represent a fairer 10% cut instead of the 20% cut.  
2.    Support efforts to redirect funding to the Library Access programs.  A reduction from $11 million down to $3 million represents a disproportionate and unfair cut of 73% and threatens the survival of cost-effective and widely used library services listed above.

Take Action ASAP:

Here’s a sample email message that you can easily edit and send:
http://www.capwiz.com/ala/pa/issues/alert/?alertid=14142501&PROCESS=Take+Action

Or here’s a link to a directory of legislators to aid in your calling their Harrisburg Office:
http://palibraries.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=230.

As always, thanks for persevering with your outstanding efforts to support library services for all Pennsylvanians.

Glenn


Glenn R. Miller
Executive Director
Pennsylvania Library Association
220 Cumberland Parkway, Suite 10
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania  17055
phone:  717-766-7663
fax:  717-766-5440
e-mail:  glenn@palibraries.org