Letters

Proposed Cuts Imperil Library Services

$7.1 million -- that’s how much money our public libraries saved last year thanks to their membership in the Connecticut Library Consortium, a nonprofit organization that relies on state funding for approximately 60 percent of its operating budget.

And how much does the state provide to the library consortium? Just $332,500, which amounts to less than 10 cents for each person in Connecticut.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed budget eliminates that grant, as well as funding for other services important to library users -- including the ability to use their local library card at any other public library in the state. 

As a taxpayer, I deplore the use of tax dollars for inefficient or wasteful purposes. The programs at stake that support public libraries, however, whose funding accounts for a miniscule portion of the state budget at a combined total of a little over $1.5 million, represent the antithesis of wasteful government spending. They help sustain a de facto regional library system that provides an outstanding level of service that would not otherwise be possible. 

I urge all those who love their library to contact their state representatives and ask that these draconian cuts to library services be rescinded from the governor’s proposed budget.

Richard Conroy, Essex

The writer is executive director of the Essex Library Association.

Copyright © 2018, Hartford Courant
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