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Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Local libraries to face budget cuts
by Kathleen Haley, published on May 31, 2011 at 10:27 PM
Storyline: City Budget
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The Sacramento City Council is likely to make major cuts to local library services, according to a preliminary vote by council members Tuesday night.
Seven of the nine City Council members voted that they intend to cut the Sacramento Public Library Authority by nearly $800,000 when they approve the city’s budget in June. The authority runs 28 libraries in Sacramento County and its proposed budget for the 2011/2012 fiscal year is $35.7 million.
Councilwomen Sandy Sheedy and Angelique Ashby voted against the plan to make $792,121 in cuts to libraries next month.
The City Council is expected to make widespread cuts to services to resolve a $39 million budget gap for the 2011/2012 fiscal year. Tuesday’s budget hearing addressed the city’s funding for its partner agencies, including the library and the Sacramento Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The Sacramento Public Library Authority has several government agencies on its board, including officials from the city, the county and other cities in the county.
“You’ve been cut past the bone,” Sheedy told Sacramento Public Library Director Rivkah Sass at the City Council meeting. “I think we’re in the marrow.”
The council made its decision after library supporters made public comments arguing against the cuts.
“It’s really the young people that really need us in the neighborhood,” Pauline Grenbeaux, president of Arden-Dimick Friends of the Library, told the City Council.
Allison Yamamoto, a sophomore at C.K. McClatchy High School, told council members that a library staffer sent her information on how to apply for a summer program focused on international leadership. Yamamoto said she applied and then received a scholarship to attend the program.
“Without the library, I would have never even had this opportunity,” Yamamoto said.
Meanwhile, city budget cuts planned for the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau would shut down a visitor center in Old Sacramento and dissolve the Sacramento Film Commission.
However, no one spoke at the City Council meeting about cuts proposed for the bureau.
Read the city staff report about the proposed library cuts here.
The Library Authority’s proposed budget is here.
Read the city’s schedule for budget hearings here.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
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Also, it is not unjust to press the library to find efficiencies to perform better. Sacramento will continue to have a public library system that is remarkable and loved in a county that greatly supports the many branches of the Sacramento Public Library.
This can be healthy for the library, or any organization, to see what it can do more efficiently.
I have one suggestion where money can be saved [and, btw, I hate offering this up because I take advantage of this "flaw" in their system]: Right now, printing documents from their catalog computers is free if the document is 5 pages or less. Because it is easy to print any long document by a series of five-page print jobs, I never have to pay for catalog computer print jobs. And some documents I print can be long, if they are magazine articles or academic essays.
I haven't felt bad about my "immoral" conduct because the Central library, unconscionably, makes it difficult NOT to overpay for use of their copier or printing pages using their microfiche machines. [There are long explanations for this, which I won't go into here -- but, hey, Ms. Sass: post a reply to this comment and I'll give YOU the skinny.]