Library supporters added their voices to protest
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- November
- 18
About 450 librarians and library supporters rallied against budget cuts at the Capitol Tuesday. Gov. David Paterson has proposed $20 million in cuts to libraries, which the New York Library Association would bring library aid down for the state’s 73 library systems to a level not seen since 1993. State aid to libraries was flat between 1998 and 2006, according to the group. It was reduced from $103 million in 2007 to $100 million in April, then $99 million in August.
“The library community is outraged by this proposal and the continued targeting of libraries to solve the state’s budget shortfalls. Library aid has already been cut twice this year, in April by 2 percent as part of the adopted 2008-09 state budget and then again at the special session in August by another 6 percent,” Michael Borges, executive director of the association, said in a statement.
The governor called lawmakers into an emergency session Tuesday to make mid-year budget cuts, but legislators did not take any action. Paterson has warned that the state faces a budget deficit of $1.5 million and growing this year.
“No other educational institutions have been targeted for a 20 percent cut in state funding. There seems to be no recognition by state budget makers that library usage has skyrocketed over the last year as more people turn to libraries for finding jobs, improving their literacy skills, and for free reading materials and programs for their families,” Borges said.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 7:30 pm by Cara Matthews.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
