Friends of the Oakland Public Library
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"Public libraries receive less than 1% of all tax dollars and are used by more than 50
percent of the population." |
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Friends of the Oakland Public Library
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The Friends at Legislative Day, 2003
Legislative Day (Leg Day) on April 30th starts early, five or six o’clock depending whether you go by car or train. Oakland was well represented by members from the Library Advisory Commission, Save Oakland Libraries advocates, students, FOPL and from the Library, director Carmen Martinez and Community Relations Librarian Kathleen Hirooka. Our mission was to speak to our representatives and, if they were not already aware of the plight of the libraries, to bring them up to date. It’s difficult to find these people sitting at their desk, and so we got brief moments with Wilma Chan and Loni Hancock. Senator Perata was on the floor, but the roomful of library advocates did get the undivided attention of staffer Chris Lehman. We were speaking basically to two issues. In the State Library budget, the areas of immediate concern were – the Public Library Foundation (PLF) and the Transaction Based Reimbursement (TBR), a fancy name for charging fees. Our Governor is proposing a reduction to the PLF of $15.8 million in the 2003-04 Budget, and further, he is proposing to eliminate all $12.1 million of funding for the TBR. Gray Davis suggests that libraries instead, charge $1 for direct loans, and $5 for Inter-Library Loans to backfill the $12.1 million for reimbursement to libraries. We called to their attention the now-famous "72 percent cut to the PLF over the last two years. No segment of local government that has been hit so hard." The PLF has direct, benefit to libraries in helping to keep the library functioning, buy books, materials, and pay the electrical bills. In some cases PLF funds add support to the Summer Reading Programs. To charge a fee is simply not feasible, establishes a bad precedence and we wouldn’t be "Free Libraries" anymore, would we? At this point, the Senate Budget Subcommittee has decided to hold all of the State Library items open and will plan to revisit all of them after the Governor's May Revision of the Budget is available in mid-May. As far as Transaction Based Reimbursement, late on the day we were there, Assemblymember Carol Liu, at the Assembly Education Committee discussions about the library. said that she had just been visited by her library folks, and had concerns about the Governor's TBR . Her response contributed to the committee eliminating TRB from the budget trailer bill. So, showing up in force, speaking to our representatives, can effect and protect our libraries, particularly in these lean budget times. Libraries are one of the free good things in life – our communities will fight to keep them. Genevieve Katz - FOPL Board Member |
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