Gov. Locke Calls for Staff Cuts
at Washington State Library
A two-year budget proposal released by Gov. Gary Locke December 17 would eliminate 81 of the 114 employees of the Washington State Library in Olympia. The plan, which is designed to cover the state’s $2-billion revenue shortfall, would effectively close the library to the public, although it would remain the repository of state and federal documents, the Northwest Collection, and other historical archives.
“We would become what I’m calling an elegant warehouse because the staff would be taken away that would serve the public,” State Librarian Jan Walsh said in the December 19 Olympian, adding that 33 employees would not be enough to keep the building open.
The library avoided having to close several branches in August, after narrowly escaping a complete shutdown in January by cutting 26 employees and transferring to the secretary of state’s office.
Library supporters, among them Secretary of State Sam Reed, suggested that Locke subject other state agencies to the same Draconian measures the library has already encountered. “If every state agency did what the library did in terms of reductions, the state would save $5 billion,” Reed said. “The library is already a model. He should be holding it up as a model of what other agencies need to do.”
The state legislature will review and approve the 2003–2005 budget in January.
Posted December 23, 2002.
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