Jeb Bush Proposes Eliminating
the State Library of Florida
Fifty-five employees of Florida’s state library have been told their jobs will end July 1, if Gov. Jeb Bush’s 2003–2004 budget proposal goes through. Submitted January 21, the budget recommends the transfer of the state library’s collection of nearly 1 million books, microfilms, and documents to Florida State University at Tallahassee in order to trim $5.4 million from state expenses.
However, FSU President T. K. Wetherell said in the January 24 Tallahassee Democrat that the university was originally told it could assume control of the collection in its present quarters, but the agreement “has gone astray.” He added that the questions of where the collection would be stored, how public access to it would be provided, and what funding could be used to maintain it will begin to be addressed in late January by a committee of FSU and state officials.
In addition, Gov. Bush’s budget recommends cutting $111.5 million from university budgets statewide, including $17.6 million from FSU. “The way it looks is that someone wants us to assume a responsibility but with no money [provided],” Wetherell said. “And that doesn’t interest us much.”
Barratt Wilkins, who retired in early January after 26 years as Florida state librarian, told the Democrat he was alarmed by the proposal. “It’s kind of a repudiation of everything I worked for and everything the previous state librarians had worked for,” he said. “I’m baffled, upset, and concerned. I think we had a credible product, agency, and program. And I just don’t see those things continuing.”
The Bureau of Library Development, which administers federal and state grants, would be transferred to a newly created Department of State and Community Partnerships.
The governor’s budget and its proposed reorganizations must still be approved by the Florida legislature. The drastic measures are to accommodate a proposed $600-million state tax cut.
Posted January 27, 2003.
|
