CLA President Thrasher's Letter to Legislators

Shawn Thrasher
President
California Library Association
1055 E. Colorado Blvd., 5th Floor
Pasadena, CA 91106

May 14, 2024

The Honorable John Laird, Chair

Senate Budget Subcommittee #1 on Education Finance

1021 O Street, Suite 8720

Sacramento, CA   95814

RE:     GOVERNOR’S 2024-25 MAY REVISION:  STATE LIBRARY OPPOSE:  CUTS TO LUNCH AT THE LIBRARY AND CALIFORNIA LIBRARY SERVICES ACT

Dear Chair Laird:

The California Library Association, representing city, county, and special district libraries throughout the state, respectfully requests that your subcommittee reject the Governor’s May Revision proposals which would make deep and significant cuts to both the Lunch at the Library program as well as the California Library Services Act. 

Lunch At The Library – 6120-140-0001

The Governor’s May Revision proposes the “elimination” of $5.5 million for the “Lunch at the Library” funding -- a reduction which will lead to public libraries throughout the state dropping their participation in the critically important food and enrichment program.  Lunch at the Library, operated by the State Library and California’s public libraries,

serves thousands of children and teens in California who are in need of a nutritious meal during the summer months.  In the Summer of 2023, “California public libraries worked with community partners to serve over 271,000 meals to children and teens at public library meal sites and community meal sites.  This included 183 public library meal sites and library staff bringing pop-up library and enrichment services to 412 community meal sites.”  (Source:  California State Library Report to the Legislature, 2022-23.)  While the number of summer meals served is certainly impressive, the Report notes that “typically, over 2 million California children who qualify for free and reduced-price school lunches do not receive free United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) meals during the summer.”  Public libraries regularly report that for some children who attend our programs, the summer meal may be the only meal that particular child receives all day.  And, in some of the rural counties, the Lunch at the Library program may be the only location nearby where families can take their children to have a meal.  

One of the significant benefits of providing lunch for youth at the library is that the public library is a trusted, safe, and welcoming space where children and their caregivers feel encouraged to attend and receive a meal.  Additionally, learning and enrichment programs are provided for attendees, creating an opportunity to enhance literacy skills or participate in a fun learning experience while receiving a meal.  

In Budget year 2022-23, the legislature and Governor provided $5 million in ongoing funding for the program, which was elevated and championed by First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and the State Library that year.  By designating the funds as “ongoing” in nature, it gave the public libraries the ability to plan for the program on a consistent basis.  However, by essentially zeroing out the funding in the program per the Governor’s 2024-25 May Revision, this proposed cut will all but ensure that countless public libraries will disband their Lunch at the Library programs.  This reduction hurts low income children and teens disproportionately, at a time when high inflation is compounding food insecurity challenges of many Californians.

California Library Services Act:  6120-211-0001

The Governor is also proposing a 50% reduction in the California Library Services Act (CLSA).  The Act, which has been in existence since the early 1970’s, was founded on the principles of equity, by requiring that public libraries engage in a cooperative and collaborative manner of sharing resources within each of the nine geographic regions of the state.  The CLSA funding is truly the glue that holds the cooperative loaning and lending structure in place for these libraries.  As its origination, this program was intended to provide reimbursement for books and materials traveling by van in between libraries, for patrons requesting specific items that their own neighborhood library may not possess.  While libraries continue to move physical items between jurisdictions and branches, now CLSA dollars are often used for large digital subscription services, to promote a broader collection of resources for libraries.   As an example, San Leandro is an extremely diverse community and notes that they don’t have the ability to collect materials in a meaningful way in all of the languages spoken in their community.  But through a subscription called “LINK+” they have a Chinese, Vietnamese, and Spanish collection that serves the community, as well as the ability to inter-library loan Japanese, Portuguese, Italian and other cultural resources from the 70+ libraries in the LINK+ consortium. 

The proposed cut to the CLSA will disproportionately impact small and rural libraries that rely on consortium-level support for physical and digital materials access.  CLSA consortium funds are typically distributed via a formula that accounts for equity, budget size, and population.  Small and rural libraries benefit from the ability to be part of a larger cooperative resource sharing network and “purchasing” arm.  Without the regional System structure that the CLSA affords them, these libraries would likely not be able to afford these services, thus denying library patrons critical community resources. 

Finally, while we understand that the state is facing a very challenging Budget deficit in 2024-25, balancing the Budget on the backs of children in need of a nutritional meal or our small and rural libraries, is unacceptable.  CLA respectfully requests that the Budget Subcommittees reject the Governor’s proposed cuts to these two programs.  Alternatively, CLA believes the legislature should consider expanding the amount of the draw-down in the State’s Reserve account beyond what the Governor is recommending for Budget year 2024-25, to avoid devastating cuts to California’s public libraries.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Shawn Thrasher, CLA President

Ontario Public Library Director

cc:       Senate Budget Subcommittee #1 on Education Finance, Members

            Christopher Francis, Senate Budget Subcommittee Consultant

            Senator Scott Wiener, Chair, Senate Budget Committee

            Senator Brian Jones, Vice Chair, Senate Budget Committee

            Joe Stephenshaw, Director, Department of Finance

            Christina DiCaro, CLA Lobbyist, KP Public Affairs