Ohio libraries, already suffering from budget restrictions, face further reductions under legislation designed to close a $720-million deficit. The bill, passed in February, hits local governments with two cuts, totaling $83 million, in the same month. As a result, libraries will receive no state funding whatsoever in July, the Associated Press reported March 4.
The cuts will force some smaller libraries to close a couple of days a week or on Sundays, said Joe Palmer, chair of the Ohio Library Council’s Government Relations Committee. Palmer, who directs the Mansfield–Richmond County Public Library, told the March 4 Mansfield News Journal that the cuts had prompted him to declare a hiring freeze, but levy money that had been set aside for projects will likely allow the library to avoid service cuts. “We’ll be cutting it close to the bone, but we’ll look at our cash flow and get over the hump,” he said.
Pickerington Public Library Director Becky Callender told the March 4 Lancaster Eagle-Gazette that she expected to receive $93,000 less in state funds this year after $96,000 in cuts in 2002. “We’ve already cut our book and video budget and will be cutting more, including programming and newsletters,” which will be cut from six times a year to quarterly, Callender said. “We’re looking at smaller cuts, but we have so much that is fixed income such as utilities,” she noted, adding that the library hoped not to cut any staff or hours.
A drop in revenue from personal income taxes resulted in an 8.5% drop in the Library and Local Government Support Fund in 2002, according to the Ohio Library Council. The group has urged the state to return the fund to its codified level of 5.7% of personal income tax revenue, which would allow the LLGSF “to fluctuate with the economy and not with the vagaries of the state budget.”
Posted March 10, 2003.