PA Libraries Get Budget Boost

State aid still remains below three years ago; incentives suffer

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 8/15/2005

Libraries in Pennsylvania have received a budget boost, as state aid to public libraries, previously $57.9 million, has been raised to $61.3 million; legislators added $2 million more than Gov. Edward Rendell proposed. "For us to come out with $2 million more was clearly a win," said Glenn Miller, executive director of the Pennsylvania Library Association.

Indeed, state support, once $75 million, had been cut to $47.5 million for the fiscal year that began two years ago (see News, LJ 2/1/04, p. 16). "The extra $2 million will help us restore...the district library centers," Miller said. Those 29 centers are designed to provide services such as consulting, continuing education, and technical assistance.

However, the total amount of state aid remains too low to restore incentives for local communities to give additional funds—a part of reform legislation that earned then governor Tom Ridge LJ's 2001 Politician of the Year award (LJ 9/15/01, p. 42–43).