Senate Proposes Additional 9% Cut to PA Public Libraries

Save Your Library Services -- Contact your PA Representative Today

Today we have learned that the PA Senate passsed a state budget including another 9% cut in the public library subsidy (among other library funding cuts). Following the disproportionate cuts of 21% in last year's state budget, this is the straw that will break many of the library services and programs that you know and love. That would make the 2010-2011 cut about $61,000 on top of the almost $200,000 cut in state funds to Franklin County public libraries from 2009-2010, bring the total cut over a 2-year period to about $255,000. That is the value of 25 years of summer reading programs or more than 10 full-time staff members -- 350 per week, or approximately 175 hours of library operations, since we cannot open a library without 2 people on duty. Last year we cut about 35 hours of library operation per week across the county.

The irony is that while the Senate is voting to cut more money from public libraries they are also supporting large increases in "educational spending". Public libraries are an important part of the Department of Education, yet we continually get the crumbs that fall from the table of the rest of that Department.

Please contact your PA legistlators today, and let them know that this is unacceptable. Not only do public libraries serve as "everyone's college" for life, but they provide valuable information and literacy support to formal education in our schools and colleges. Indeed, library use continues to grow as the economy struggles. Urge your representatives to halt the disproportionate chopping of public library funding.