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Officials with the Library System of Lancaster County met Thursday morning with area lawmakers and their legislative aides to talk about resuscitating a dormant state funding formula. Their goal is to raise more money for local libraries than what's currently available.
The formula — which has not been used since a 2003 budget battle between Republicans and Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell slashed library funding — is meant as an incentive for local sources to donate more money to libraries, a portion of which the state would match.
"That (state and local) money would go straight out to every library in the community," said Susan Hauer, administrator for the Lancaster Library System. "And they would be able to hire more staff, they would be able to stay open for more hours, they would be able to purchase more materials, they would be able to do more for seniors and for school districts."
Since 2003, library funding from the state has increased at a rate agreed to by the General Assembly and the governor and has largely ignored the funding formula.
Local librarians say the way the state increases library funding today is simply arbitrary. They argue that in the absence of the old formula, no matter how much may be raised from local sources, local libraries are not receiving as much as they would have from the state.
Lancaster officials hope reinstating the formula will yield $200,000 in additional funds to supplement the $1.87 million it received in the 2007-08 fiscal year. The Lancaster Library system includes 16 locations.
The hitch to restoring the old formula is finding an additional $2.2 million above the $77.2 million Rendell has proposed for libraries in the 2008-09 budget. Rendell's plan calls for only a $1.6 million increase from the current fiscal year.
In the coming weeks, lawmakers are heading into heated budget negotiations. Those talks will come even as Rendell, who usually strikes an optimistic tone, has said that "storm clouds" from a struggling national economy are undermining efforts to keep Pennsylvania open for business.
That makes finding additional dollars for anything, even libraries, harder than understanding the old Dewey Decimal System.
"We have to decide who's going to get the money, and certainly libraries are a strong consideration, but they may not be funded they way they want," Republican state Rep. Katie True said.
But Hauer has an ally in state Sen. Mike Brubaker, the Warwick Township Republican who led Thursday's meeting.
Brubaker said he's written letters to Senate GOP leadership and Rendell, lobbying for a return of the funding formula.
"There are so many activities and in some cases so many distractions for our youth today," Brubaker said. "I can't imagine a better place, a better environment, a healthier, more appropriate environment for youth today than a library. Even our parks aren't what they used to be, but libraries are one of the safe havens left."
When asked what program cuts should be made to create the $2.2 million, Hauer said it wasn't up to her to decide.
"My answer is, it's not my job," she said. "It's (the Legislature's) job. It's their job to figure out how to fix the things they have been elected to be the caretakers of and put into a budget that which helps the most number of people."
True said Hauer is correct. It is the Legislature's job.
"But, you know," True said, "the first rule of thumb is to take care of the neediest," such as people in nursing homes, the impoverished, seniors who need medical assistance and those struggling with mental health issues.
E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com
