PA Budget Step 1

Just a brief update to let you know that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed H.B. 1485 by a vote of 109-92. This is the House Republican budget plan which is a modified version of Governor Corbett’s budget proposal that he unveiled last March. H.B. 1485, like Governor Corbett’s proposal, largely sustains library funding at levels comparable to this current year (recent funding chart: http://palibraries.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=407.)

The plan now moves to the State Senate where it almost certainly will be modified further. In our meetings with State Senators and Senate staffers, there seems to be solid support for approving the library funding levels proposed by Governor Corbett and approved by the State House in H.B. 1485. There also seems to be broad recognition that libraries have already been hit hard by cuts totaling more than one-third of our funding over the last two years.

But we dare not leave anything to chance.

Your State Senator needs to be reminded of the importance of library services supported by state funding, and that you support the library portion of the state budget (H.B. 1485.) Here’s a link (http://www.capwiz.com/ala/pa/home/) so that you can quickly and easily send an email to your State Senator.

We recognize that this budget is far from perfect and that other cuts at the state and local level may still adversely impact library services at colleges and universities, at school libraries, and at public libraries that receive significant local support through school district budgets.

At the same time, we also recognize that preserving this amount of library funding at the state level while the overall state budget is shrinking by $700 million is no small feat. The credit for this positive news in an otherwise difficult year goes to the many, many energetic and passionate advocates who carry the library message.

The timetable for a vote in the State Senate is not clear but we expect the budget to be completed on time before June 30. We’ll let you know when we have more information on a senate vote. In the meantime, please take a moment and contact your State Senator (http://www.capwiz.com/ala/pa/home/) to support the library portion of the state budget as passed by the House in H.B. 1485.

Thanks for your great advocacy and for contacting your State Senator. We’ll keep you posted.