March 19, 2010

Catching Up - Cuts to Libraries

Like I said yesterday, apologies for the extended absence. Have I lost all my followers? If not, how has everyone been holding up, especially with budget issues?

NJ's new governor revealed some massive cuts all around in his budget proposal yesterday. State aid to my library's town of West Orange is proposed to be $996,887 less than last year, or 17.5%. (Star Ledger). The Board of Education is expecting an even bigger hit.

In West Orange, the cuts mean a loss of $6 million in state aid, a nearly 64 percent cut.
"It means our educational program is going to be devastated," Superintendent Anthony Cavanna said. "It has the potential to drive taxes up. It may not; we can raise taxes or cut services. We have some pretty tough decisions to make."
(Star Ledger)

NJLA has informed its constituents that the proposed budget is cutting millions of dollars for their services - money that goes to interlibrary loan, databases, program funding, and other critical library services.

I knew something was coming, and I guess we still don't really know what that something is. There's a facebook group, Save NJ Libraries that should keep everyone posted on what's going on and ways to get involved.

Let's hope for the best.

3 comments:

Lisa said...

NY libraries are facing some possible budget cuts as well. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6716903.html

Anonymous said...

Not actually related to the post at hand, but this is an official invitation to join my "Finding the 'good' parents in YA Lit" challenge and post your own list of books with "good" parents.

You can find all the information here:
http://wp.me/p6kfM-LB

Thanks!

Jonny said...

i'm interested in what chris christie's plan is, or if he's made an effort to present to us his vision and comprehensive effort. i admittedly don't follow NJ politics much at all. but i'm just curious if there's a light on the horizon we can have to look forward to, after these sorts of huge cuts.