When Florida Governor Jeb Bush released his 2001–02 state budget January 17, the allocation for the state’s six regional multitype library cooperatives, which received $1.2 million last year, was completely zeroed out. A notice on the North East Florida Library Network’s Web site sounded the alarm and raised concerns among librarians in the state and elsewhere.
However, NEFLIN Executive Director Brad Ward subsequently learned from Florida State Librarian Barratt Wilkins that the omission seemed to be a simple oversight. Ward explained that the cooperatives are on a nonrecurring budget line that must be reinstated annually, and the governor’s Office of Policy and Budget apparently neglected to include it. Ward said the multitype directors, along with Wilkins, would be meeting with members of key legislative committee within the next few weeks to insure that the funding is included in the version of the budget developed by the legislature this spring.
Ward expressed confidence that the funding, which supplies 95% of NEFLIN’s operating monies and is used to obtain matching federal LSTA grants, would be reinstated. “Nevertheless,” he observed, “we have to be watchful and concerned,” warning that “Circumstances change rapidly in this environment.”
Posted January 29, 2001.