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February 8, 2009
Don't cut funds for our valuable public libraries
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voice of the people / Don't cut funds for our valuable public libraries
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Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ)-February 6, 2009
The funding of public libraries isn't a hot topic. I doubt the businessman using the free WiFi at the public library, the couple choosing Saturday night's entertainment from the library's DVD collection or the student using library resources to write the best-ever college entrance essay are in any way aware of the danger public libraries in New Jersey face from a recent proposal to cut their funding.
Most of the people who use public libraries -- and the use of all library resources, including staff, increases dramatically during times of financial hardship -- don't know or care how a free public library is able to maintain its level of commitment to its community.
Municipalities provide funding based on their ratables. Affluent municipalities yield higher funding than a municipality with fewer ratables and/or lower assessments. The State Library Development Bureau has managed to maintain an equitable distribution of funds by coordinating resource sharing among the four regional libraries in the New Jersey Library networks and by fairly administering per-capita state aid and state and federal grants. And it's worked.
Until now. The League of Municipalities wants to change the formula so that municipalities pay less. The proposed decrease would effectively cut public library funding 50 percent. Funds for the State Library Development Bureau would also assuredly be cut.
These cuts would result in layoffs of librarians and staff; fewer staff members means fewer hours of operation, as well as curtailed or discontinued programs. These cuts would guarantee, at a time when it is needed more than ever, that a vital part of any municipality -- its free public library -- would cease to exist. Please contact your state legislators and urge them to support the continued responsible funding of all our public libraries.
NANCY WADDELL
Ocean City
Posted by tumulty at February 8, 2009 5:44 PM
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