Pennsylvania Report Calls for
Increased State Funding
The Pennsylvania Library Association has released a task force report calling for the state to "take on a larger partnership role" to improve library service.
The Platform for Twenty-First Century Libraries recommends that the state increase its investment in libraries—currently $1 in state funds for every $6 spent locally on library services—in order to insure basic, consistent library service statewide. It calls for annual increases of $18.2 million until a level of $123 million is attained in FY 2002-03. Current funding is $32.6 million.
The platform also recommends that the $2 per-capita local support requirement, not changed since 1961, should be raised to $5 per capita, with some consideration given for disadvantaged communities.
A series in the Philadelphia Inquirer last June called attention to the financial crisis facing the state's libraries. Gov. Tom Ridge's 1998-99 budget boosts state funding for public libraries by $11 million.
Posted March 16, 1998.
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