Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee cut funding for public libraries by nearly 70% in his revised 2002–2003 budget proposal April 9, spurring a financial crisis for institutions that have relied on state aid since 1937. His $3.4-million cut to libraries is a compromise with the state legislature, which balked at the governor’s initial call to eliminate state funds to libraries altogether, according to the April 10 Little Rock Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
In a Joint Budget Committee meeting state Sen. Jon Fitch (D-Hindsville) said that to reverse Arkansas’s decades-long policy of financing libraries wasn’t right. Eliminating all funding would have meant 6% to 50% reductions in operating budgets for the 235 libraries in 75 counties across the state, according to the office of the Arkansas state librarian. The impact of state cuts will be felt in July, when Arkansas’s new fiscal year begins. The timing means libraries will have little chance to seek local funding to recover shortages.
“The way our public libraries are developed and organized, this money is imperative for survival,” Assistant State Librarian Bob Black said April 9 in the Fort Smith Southwest Times Record.
Posted April 16, 2001.