The library’s budget had been cut by $10 million since 2002, and 44 of the 62 branches had to reduce their hours to five days per week; acquisitions were also reduced by 40% this year. The FY 2005 budget proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in May included an additional reduction of $4 million and would have required all branches to cut back to five-day service, some possibly to three or four days.
Rallies had been held for a month in Queens to collect signatures and drum up support for the library. QBPL Interim Director Tom Galante had teamed with council members David Weprin, Leroy Comrie, Jose Serrano, and Gail Brewer to plead with the mayor to restore funding.
Serrano, who as chair of the Committee for Libraries and International Intergroup Relations has lobbied to restore library funds to the whole city, told the Chronicle, “Queens has the busiest library system of the three in the city, and I don’t need to tell anyone how important libraries are. We need to fund them properly.”
Posted July 2, 2004.