House budget cuts state aid to Kentucky libraries. Some might have to close.
House Republicans cut $2.5 million in direct aid for local libraries from their version of the state budget, unveiled last Thursday, potentially closing small libraries that depend on it in some of Kentucky’s poorest rural communities.
Not only did the House GOP majority reduce overall library aid from the $7.8 million proposed by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear to $5.3 million, they added restrictive language requiring all remaining funds to be spent only on construction.
Such a cut would have a disproportionate impact on rural libraries with little revenue of their own. The Ballard-Carlisle County Public Library gets nearly all of its budget from state aid, according to the Kentucky Library Association. For the Hickman County library, state aid makes up 57 percent of the budget. For Knott County’s library, it’s 23 percent. For Livington County’s library, it’s 22 percent.
“We know that our legislators have a tough job to do with the budget,” said Mark Adler, director of the Paris-Bourbon County Public Library and president-elect of the Kentucky Library Association.
“They may not really understand how devastating this loss would be to libraries in some of our neediest communities, where people depend on us not just for books but also for classes, GED exams, free Internet access and all sorts of services they can’t necessarily get anywhere else,” Adler said.
House budget chairman Steve Rudy, R-Paducah, represents Ballard and Carlisle counties in his district. On Monday, Rudy said lawmakers have heard that some libraries don’t need state aid.
“There’s a lot of communities concerned about the reserves that some of these libraries have, and I think we’re going to do a deeper dive into it where we continue to have conversations,” Rudy said. “Some of them are sitting on quite a bit of cash, and I’ve been contacted from a lot of fiscal courts and county judge-executives saying our libraries keep raising taxes and we can’t do anything about it.”
The aid earmarked for construction is to cover the cost of bonds for which the government already is obligated, Rudy said.
Republicans in Frankfort have targeted library funding for years.
Former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin made a similar cut to state aid for libraries in his 2018 budget, although the money was restored later in the budget writing process after intensive lobbying by libraries. Republican legislative leaders also have pushed for limits on the taxing authority of local library boards by requiring their members to either be elected or appointed by local elected officials.
The state of Kentucky has provided financial aid to local libraries since 1952, based in part on the size of the populations they serve.
“For some counties, the loss of state aid may not be the end. If we had to lose the $16,000 we get in Bourbon County, we could tighten our belt and do it, although that would be a lot fewer books,” Adler said. “But for other libraries more dependent on it, it truly would be catastrophic. They would either lose staff or have to close their doors for some days or just close entirely.”
The Powell County library gets about $13,000 a year in state aid, roughly the equivalent of its annual spending on electricity, adult programming or Internet connection, said library board member Michael Frazier.
“In our area, quite a lot of the community doesn’t have access to the Internet,” Frazier said. “You can come to us or you can go to the McDonald’s or the Dairy Queen. But the difference is, we don’t make you order anything to use the Internet. And not everyone has five bucks to spend around here just to go online.”
In Powell County, 22 percent of the 12,442 people live in poverty. Still, the community raises about $275,000 annually in local revenue for the library, which is most of its budget.
“I think this goes along with the overall scheme of the General Assembly to put more responsibility on communities to raise their own taxes locally,” Frazier added. “But there is a limit in Powell County to how much more we can raise taxes. We’re already scraping the bone.”
Dave Schroeder, executive director of the Kenton County Public Library, is part of a team lobbying the Senate to restore the governor’s budget language for the Kentucky Library Association.
“It’s not that we’re asking for more money. The funding rate has been flat for years. We’re just asking for what we’ve been getting,” Schroeder said.
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 10:33 AM.
