Public
Employee Press Workers to
pols: Protect public libraries By GREGORY N. HEIRES Dozens of
DC 37 members and retirees descended on Albany March 2 to voice their outrage
over millions of dollars in proposed cuts to the citys public libraries. The
activists from DC 37s library locals told politicians they feared the state
budget reductions, combined with deep local cuts, would decimate services and
cause mass layoffs. Before lobbying, the unionists rallied outside legislators
offices at Empire State Plaza with 1,000 library workers and community members
from across the state. The crowd broke into a chant of No more
cuts! after New York Library Association Executive Director Michael J. Borges
said Gov. David Patersons proposed budget would raise the total loss in
state library funding over the past two years to $18 million and put library aid
below 1998 levels. Cutting funding for our libraries is cutting funding
for literacy, education, our culture and our community, said Vincent Gentile,
who chairs the City Council Committee on Libraries. Barbara
Lifton, who chairs the Assembly Library Committee, blamed the funding shortfall
on years of misguided tax cuts. Without the billions of dollars in cuts over two
decades, New York State wouldnt be facing its current fiscal crisis, she
said. City libraries would lose $4.9 million under Patersons budget.
All told, the three systems would face up to $70 million in reductions in 2010
and 2011 under Mayor Michael Bloombergs preliminary financial plan.
Library officials told the City Council March 16 that in the
worst-case scenario, the budget cuts would eliminate over 1,300 positions.
Local Presidents Margalit Susser of Queens Library Guild Local 1321, Eileen
Muller of Brooklyn Public Library Guild Local 1482 and Carol Thomas of New York
Public Library Guild Local 1930 led the force of members who visited legislators
to denounce the cuts.
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