Kansas City, MO, Central Library / photo credit
Jonathan Moreau

Difficult budget decisions, including probable cuts, await libraries throughout Missouri after the legislature drastically slashed state aid in two critical areas as part of a $26 billion 2016 spending plan adopted by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Jay Nixon. Aid to libraries determined on a per-capita basis for fiscal year 2016 was set at $723,776, a 79 percent cut compared to the $3.5 million budgeted for the previous year. A separate appropriation for Remote Electronic Access for Libraries (REAL), which helps pay for statewide library Internet service and support, absorbed a 52 percent reduction, down from about $3.1 million to $2 million. The $723,776 aid appropriation works out to $0.13 per capita for the state’s 141 library districts, which Missouri State Librarian Barbara Reading called the state’s lowest expenditure since 1997. In 2014, Missouri spent about 50 cents per capita on library aid.

Where the cuts will hit hardest

“These budget cuts will affect all libraries,” Reading told LJ, “but have a larger effect in smaller library districts. There’s of course less room in a small budget to shift funds. While I have not talked with many libraries yet, I expect that materials, library hours, and many other areas will be affected.” In past years, state aid accounted for about 3 to 5 percent of most library budgets. R. Crosby Kemper III, executive director of the Kansas City Public Library, said his system stands to lose about $150,000 in state aid from an operating budget of approximately $16 million. That amount, he said, would be the equivalent of three or four librarians or roughly 15 percent of the materials budget. So there will be hard decisions to make. “We have to find somewhere to cut,” Kemper said. “We’re bare bones. I don’t want to do any of that, but that’s where we are.” The REAL program, meanwhile, helped pay for MOREnet, the Internet service provider for many of Missouri’s schools, libraries, health care organizations, and other institutions. MOREnet’s rates continue to rise, Reading said, even as the state will provide less money. “MOREnet had already announced fee increases this spring for all member types, in anticipation of an appropriation decrease,” Reading said. MOREnet “also reduced the types of online resources that will be provided to all members. We will be working with them on how best to use the appropriated funds.” “Our bill for MOREnet is going to go up,” said Jim Schmidt, the Missouri Library Association’s state legislative coordinator. “We’re going to have to find a way locally to pay for that.”

One step forward, two steps back

While not completely unexpected, the budget cuts amounted to a setback for some of Missouri’s leading library officials, who hoped a persistent lobbying effort during the legislative budget process would mitigate the damage. “We were the easy one to cut,” said Kemper, adding that his conversations with several state Senators led him to believe that, at the very least, REAL funding could remain at FY15 levels. But in the end, he said, as the Legislature struggled to fund massive education and health care initiatives, lawmakers probably felt the need to skim incremental amounts from other areas. “It shows the state’s not terribly interested in libraries,” Kemper said. Schmidt, associate director of the Springfield-Greene County Library in Springfield, Mo., added that he was “a little disappointed and a little surprised” by the Legislature’s decision to slice $1.1 million from the previous REAL appropriation. Library advocates’ expectations were tempered from the start by several factors, including a months-long wrangle with the governor over $5.9 million in withheld state aid from fiscal year 2015. The governor blamed revenue shortfalls for making those withholds necessary, insisting the state would not spend money it did not have. Starting last November, Missouri’s library community worked to convince Nixon to free up that funding, which included the entire $3.1 million REAL appropriation and about $2.8 million in per capita-assessed aid. That effort that grew more united and determined as the months passed. In March, a group of library officials, including Kemper and teenage patrons, was ejected from Nixon’s office during an aborted attempt to meet personally with the governor at the state capital. The incident attracted a lot of media attention and threw the spotlight on the library community’s plight. Still, the governor refused to budge. Finally, and with no prior indication he was planning to act, Nixon on April 3 announced that $43 million for more than 20 state programs (including REAL and per capita library aid) was being released from state coffers, citing a sudden surge in revenue. But the celebration would be short-lived. Release of the FY15 money coincided with hearings on the FY16 budget. Both houses of the General Assembly were determined to pass a spending plan earlier than in past years, guaranteeing them adequate time to override any line-item vetoes Nixon chose to make. Earlier in the process, Nixon’s initial budget request signaled more trouble for libraries. He recommended only $723,776 in per capita aid and no money at all for REAL. The spending bill voted on and passed by the House of Representatives set a $2 million appropriation for REAL along with the same reduced per capita aid amount. The Senate’s version of the budget bill set the REAL amount at $3.1 million, giving library officials a reason to hope that figure could remain at FY15 levels once the budget disparities were ironed out in conference committee negotiations. Instead, the two sides settled on a figure of $2 million for REAL. That version was the one signed into law by Nixon. Despite the state funding cuts, Missouri’s federal library grants, available under the Library Services and Technology Act, should be protected for FY16, Reading said, as long as Nixon does not withhold funds again. LSTA grants are used to support a variety of statewide library projects, and each state must provide some matching funds to remain eligible. Missouri’s LSTA grant for FY15 was $2,925,990. Said Kemper, “We never really made that case in the right way to the right people.” The one silver lining for libraries is that Nixon, in signing the Legislature’s budget on May 8, chose not to use a line-item veto on the REAL funding. Some library officials feared he might take that step, they told LJ, because the governor had zeroed out funding for the program in his original 2016 budget message.