CLA Weblog Submissions
Do you have information that would be of interest to the library community? Please send your weblog submissions to the CLA office at lfisher@cla-net.org.
Budget Conference Committee Acts on Library Issues
Last Thursday afternoon, the Budget Conference Committee, co-Chaired by Senator Denise Ducheny and Assemblyman John Laird, convened to close out a series of non-controversial Budget items before departing for the July 4th holiday. Among those items revisited by the six-member Conference Committee was funding for the Public Library Foundation and Transaction Based Reimbursement.
You may recall from our memo last week, that the Governor, in his January version of the State Budget, suggested a ten percent across-the-board cut to several State Library programs. Specifically, these programs proposed for reduction are the: 1) Public Library Foundation, 2) Transaction Based Reimbursement, 3) Civil Liberties Education, 4) California Newspaper Project, and 5) English Acquisition/Literacy Program. The Conference Committee has been attempting to reconcile whether they should adopt the so-called "Senate Version" of the Budget, which recommends adoption of the ten percent cut to the library programs or the "Assembly Version" which rejects the ten percent reductions. The first time the Budget conferees discussed the library items several weeks ago, they decided to leave the issues "open" as there was not any agreement between the two houses.
However, on Thursday afternoon, the Conference Committee decided on a compromise. Senator Denise Ducheny presented the open library issues and said, "There has been some talk about restoring [the 10% cut to the PLF and TBR.] This is so hard. My thought is a restoration of each at 5%." Assemblyman Laird said, "I would agree to the 5%." Senator Ducheny concurred, "Let's do 5% for all." The action taken by the Conference Committee will reduce the proposed $3,450,000 cuts to the 5 aforementioned programs, including the PLF and TBR, by half or approximately $1,725,000. Thus, instead of the Conferees agreeing to a 10 percent across-the-board reduction (totaling $3,450,000), they have approved a modest restoration, and will suggest cutting the programs by 5 percent or ($1,725,000). The motion passed on a vote of 4 "ayes" to 2 "noes." with the two Republicans (Niello and Dutton) voting against the partial restoration.
You will recall that the Governor's January Budget suggested that the PLF be reduced 10 percent or $1.4 million and the TBR be reduced 10 percent or $1.4 million. As a result of the action of the conferees, these two programs are proposed to be reduced by the Conference Committee by approximately $700,000 each.
While Thursday's action was certainly encouraging for public libraries, during this difficult and unprecedented Budget year, it should be noted that Budget negotiations are far from over. Even if the 5% reduction to the library programs holds, the Governor would still have the authority to "blue pencil," or make further reductions to, the library programs when he signs the Budget.
The Conference Committee has not convened since last Thursday, and they remain "on call of the Chair."
Submitted by Mike and Christina Dillon, CLA Lobbyists
Posted on July 7, 2008 3:05 PM | Permalink