The Governor’s 2004-05 budget proposal included a 5% cut in library aid. For the Nassau Library System and our member libraries this would mean a loss of approximately $181,000. Wisely, the State Legislature restored this aid. Now the Governor has vetoed what the Legislature had restored.

In New York, public libraries are almost entirely supported by local tax dollars. Library systems, which were created by the State and rely on state funding, are the infrastructure for library service throughout the State facilitating cost-effective resource sharing, critical support services and economies of scale.

In Nassau it is the Nassau Library System (NLS) that fulfills this function for all 54 public libraries in the County. NLS provides services such as interlibrary loan, delivery of books and audiovisual materials among libraries, a shared online catalog of library holdings, cooperative subscriptions to online databases at reduced cost, the hosting of library web pages, technology training and support, as well as coordinated outreach services for seniors, persons with disabilities, at-risk children and families, and our growing Hispanic population.

NLS is already operating at an austerity level. Throughout the 1990s, while the State substantially increased its overall support for education, library aid was consistently neglected. There has been no increase in formula aid to library systems since 1998. A 5% cut on top of this stagnant funding would seriously impair the ability of NLS and other library systems to continue to provide critical services.

As if this weren’t bad enough, NLS and its member libraries have been denied the population-driven statutory increases that we are due based on the 2000 census. Rather than allocate the additional funds required, the Governor continues to shortchange the Nassau System, our member libraries, and thereby the Nassau residents they serve, by allocating public library system aid based on the 1990 census.

Aid to library systems and libraries is a very small part of the State’s budget – less than 1/10 of 1%. Although the proposed 5% cut in state aid would be injurious to NLS, our member libraries and those they serve, it would only save the State less than $4.5 million. Plus, this cut in state aid would result in a reduction of federal library aid to New York.

We need your help. Please contact your State Legislators now. Please also contact the leadership of the State Senate and Assembly and urge them to override Governor’s vetoes # 77, 78 & 79, thereby restoring the 5% in state aid to libraries. We have prepared a generic letter/fax which can be printed as is or modified and sent. You can also send a generic email as is (or modified) directly from this web site. Just follow the links below.

To Send an Email / Fax or for Contact Information

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