Accused
of using one-time funds to support libraries in a partisan and unequal manner,
Republicans in the state Assembly are striking back, saying it’s Democrats who
are politicizing the issue.

Both
the Senate and Assembly originally restored cuts made by Governor George Pataki
to libraries and library systems in the 2004 state budget. But when Republican
Assemblymembers refused to join an attempt to override Pataki’s veto of the
funding restoration, they received discretionary money from the Governor for
libraries in their own districts. Assembly minority leader Charles Nesbitt,
R-Albion, denied any quid pro quo, but many critics suggest the timing
indicates otherwise.

Democrats
cried foul — they wanted to fund libraries directly through the budget.
Library systems directors were also miffed. With aid being parceled out by the
assembly district, and to individual libraries in the form of pork-barrel
checks, their systems were being left out.

When
it comes to funding, the distinction between individual libraries and library
systems is important: Library systems like Monroe County Library System provide
technical and logistical support for programs like interlibrary loans,
computers, and other services shared from library to library. MCLS lost more
than $100,000, or about 5 percent of its budget, after the cuts weren’t
restored.

Now, in the
face of criticism, Republican Assemblymembers are going on the offensive.
When Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver called for public hearings
around the state, including locations in Canandaigua and Rochester, to call
attention to the funding situation, Republicans took their case to the news
media. At press conferences before both the local hearings, members of the
local Republican Assembly delegation called on Silver and the Assembly
Democrats to follow their lead in funding libraries with discretionary money.

“We
all know [library funding] is important,” Assemblymember Bill Reilich said in a
press conference outside the downtown Monroe County Office Building. “However,
simply voting to override the vetoes won’t fix the problem. It won’t give the
state the resources to pay for it.” In a conciliatory gesture, he added that he
agrees with what Democrats and library professionals have been saying: “No one
is suggesting using discretionary funds is a long-term solution,” he says.

“With
what little funds we have on hand we chose to support our libraries,” said
Assemblymember Bob Oaks. “It is unfortunate that the speaker has chosen to
politicize library funding.”

But
the Republicans themselves weren’t wasting the opportunity to make political
hay, either.

During
the press conference, they blamed problems with Medicaid for the state’s
inability to put library funding directly into the budget, saying that’s why
they voted against the override in the first place.

“The
Medicaid Monster is eating us all,” said Assemblymember Joe Errigo. Waste
within the Medicaid system is the real culprit, and that’s where reform should
start, the Assemblymen said.

“This is
nonsense,”
says Sandra Galef. The Democratic Assemblymember represents a district in
Westchester and Putnam Counties, and chairs the Assembly’s Library Committee and
was in Rochester to administer the public hearings.

“We
wouldn’t be having this discussion,” she says, if a single Republican —
including Oaks, Reilich, or Errigo — had crossed party lines to vote for the
override.

“We
shouldn’t have Democratic and Republican libraries,” she says. “Discretionary
money is the wrong way to fund libraries.” Since some politicians — like
Galef herself, or Susan John locally — don’t accept discretionary funds
“there’d be an inequity there,” she added. She also pointed out that using
those funds rather than putting the money directly into the state budget
reduces federal aid to libraries, since the federal formula is based on state
aid.

That
was also a theme brought by the hearing’s first speaker, President of the New
York Library Association Arthur Friedman. The decreased federal aid would total
about half a million dollars, on top of the $4.4 million already cut by the
governor, he says. Some programs, like a summer reading program that serves a
million kids statewide, rely entirely on that funding.

Comparing
the library system to the interstate system of the Information Age, Friedman
warned the Assemblymembers present at the Rochester hearing that chronic
under-funding could have disastrous effects on libraries.

“It
took the collapse of the Mianus River Bridge to wake us to the dangers that
were present,” said Freidman. “What will it take for our political leaders to
heed the call that our library systems are in danger of similar collapse?”

This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2004.