State libraries trying to head off more funding cuts

SANDUSKY — Public libraries in Ohio face another cut in state funding unless state lawmakers choose to take action in the new state budget.Libraries in Ohio enjoy more generous state funding than libraries in virtually any other state, but Ohio's libraries have been battered by cuts in recent years, and librarians are trying to head off more bad news.The Sandusky Library's executive director, Molly Carver, brought up the looming cut in an editorial in the new issue of "Cover to Cover," the library's newsletter."We know that Ohioans value their public libraries and public libraries create opportunities and transform lives," Carver wrote.Lawmakers reconvening in the coming weeks in Columbus will be working on a new two-year budget that will take effect July 1.The last budget was relatively generous. Lawmakers raised the percentage of the state's general revenue fund going to libraries from 1.66 percent to 1.7 percent for the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years.That did provide a boost at first, said Michelle Francis, director of government and legal services for the Ohio. In 2015, state aid to libraries was $380.8 million, an increase of about $35 million.Using the Huron Public Library while waiting for dinner to be ready at home on Thursday, Tom Rice and Addison Graham, 9, study math. In 2016, however, funding fell to $377 million, part of a general trend of disappointing state tax revenues, she said.Worse, the boost from 1.66 percent to 1.7 percent was only temporary, she said. Unless lawmakers act, the percentage of revenue going to libraries reverts to 1.66 percent, she said.Francis said libraries in Ohio have never recovered from the big budget cuts imposed after the Great Recession, when tax revenues fell. In 2008, libraries received $450 million from the state.Tim Hagen, director of Ida Rupp Public Library in Port Clinton, said the current situation forces librarians to stay busy lobbying state lawmakers."The importance of advocacy in public libraries is becoming not just in every budget year, it's becoming a constant responsibility," he said.State support is important for both Sandusky's and Port Clinton's libraries. In Sandusky, state funding provides 49.7 percent of the library's revenues, Carver said. In Port Clinton, the figure is about 42 percent, Hagen said.People utilize the Huron Public Library on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. State Sen. Randy Gardner, R-Bowling Green, said he supports maintaining the 1.7 percent level of state funding. Ohio is still number one among the 50 states for state support of libraries, Gardner said."Libraries received a major cut in funding in 2009 as part of Governor Strickland's last budget but overall state support for libraries has increased by $60 million since then and libraries received a solid increase in the last budget two years ago," Gardner wrote in an email to the Register."The challenge will be with state budget revenues struggling to meet expectations, can the public library fund maintain in the next budget its deserved gains in state support of recent years? I hope so," he wrote.State Sen. Randy Gardner, here shown being sworn into office by Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor of the Ohio Supreme Court, says he supports healthy state funding for public libraries.