BUDGET COMMITTEE SAVES LIBRARY FROM ELIMINATION

BUDGET CONFERENCE COMMITTEE SAVES LIBRARY PROGRAMS FROM ELIMINATIONBudget Bills Head To The Floors Next Week
CLA: 3.03.11 by Mike Dillon and Christina DiCaro, CLA Lobbyists

This afternoon the powerful 10 member Budget Conference Committee put their final mark on a massive reduction and revenues package, addressing the Governor’s plan to close a whopping $26 billion Budget deficit. One of their final actions was approving a “Conference Compromise” to spare the three library programs – the Public Library Foundation, the California Library Services Act, and the State literacy program, from elimination. You will recall that the Governor’s January Budget recommended complete elimination of $30.4 million for these three programs, which would also jeopardize millions in federal dollars associated with the CLSA. The Assembly Version of the Budget sought to spare the three programs from deep cuts, while the Senate initially agreed to accept the Governor’s proposal to eliminate the programs. And so, when the Conference Committee met this afternoon, they formally approved an action to keep the following dollar amounts in these three programs:

“Conference Compromise”
~ $8.5 million in the California Library Services Act
(at this funding level, also allows the State Library to maintain its federal MOE/match)
~ $3.7 million in the California Library Literacy Services program
~ $3 million in the Public Library Foundation

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. . . many of the items being voted on in the Conference Committee have received votes that are split along party-lines. We believe that the strong bipartisan vote on our three items will certainly help to encourage the Governor to leave the $15.2 million in the Budget for these programs.

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The intention is for the Assembly and Senate to vote on the Budget bills next week. We will give you information on Monday regarding contacting the Governor to encourage him to leave the $15.2 million in the Budget for library funding.